RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Louisiana >> Ouachita Parish >> Swartz >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).

When in Swartz, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Swartz and the surrounding area.

  • Astronomy & Satellites ...
    • Whether using binoculars, a small telescope or the naked-eye, the Heavens-Above website can help you to find your way around the night-time sky. In addition to detailed sky charts, their website will help you find planets, asteriods, comets, satellites and their tracks across the sky.
    • To give accurate results, Heavens-Above requires the latitude and longitude of your location. As a starting point, when we link to Heavens-Above, we pass this GPS location for Swartz:
    • 32.568749, -91.985152
    • Once you're on the Heavens-Above website, you can improve its accuracy by giving a more precise longitude and latitude as your actual position.
    • Open the Heavens-Above website centered on Swartz
  • Bird Watching ...
    • We enjoy finding new spots for bird watching and we use the eBird website for local sighting reports and to help identify hotspots.
    • The eBird website is organized on a parish-by-parish basis. We have selected Ouachita Parish as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Ouachita Parish
    • Since Swartz is near Richland Parish and also Morehouse Parish, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Richland Parish
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Morehouse Parish
  • Waymarking ...
    • Looking for somewhere out of the ordinary? Find a unique place and want to share it with others? Then it's time to visit Waymarking.com:
    • Open the Waymark.com report for Swartz

Communities Also Named Swartz ...

We found two communities that are also named Swartz.

Within Louisiana, the name Swartz is unique.

Beyond Louisiana, we know of two communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • New Mexico
      • Grant County
      • This community is historic<1> and although located in Grant County, we don't know where within the parish.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Grant County community of Swartz.
    • Ohio
      • Hocking County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Ohio community of Swartz [Hocking County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Swartz ...

As we travel, we always see a community with a name that gives pause. While there are names which are interesting or familiar, some catch our attention or strike our fancy. We always wonder about such a name. If time permits and the community is not too far, we'll usually try to make a side-trip.

  • Cypress Point
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Cypress Point is located in Ouachita Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cypress Point
  • Edgewater
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Edgewater is located in Ouachita Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edgewater
  • Hammock
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Hammock is located in Ouachita Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hammock
  • Hidden Oaks
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Hidden Oaks is located in Ouachita Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hidden Oaks
  • Lakeshore
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Lakeshore is located in Ouachita Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lakeshore
  • Lakeview Park
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Lakeview Park is located in Ouachita Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lakeview Park
  • Leisure Village
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Leisure Village is located in Ouachita Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leisure Village
  • Magenta
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Magenta is located in Ouachita Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Magenta
  • Oliver
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Oliver is located in Ouachita Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oliver
  • Pecan Bayou
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Pecan Bayou is located in Ouachita Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pecan Bayou
  • Spanish City
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Spanish City is located in Ouachita Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spanish City
  • Treasure Island
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Treasure Island is located in Ouachita Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Treasure Island

How Far From Swartz to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers, Almanacs & Directories that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Swartz to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<3> beginning in Swartz and extending to:

  • Monroe, which is the Seat of Ouachita Parish, lies just to the West Southwest.
  • Baton Rouge, which is the State Capital of Louisiana, lies 154 miles [247.8 km]<3> to the south southeast (SSE). If you could drive a straight line from Swartz to Baton Rouge, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 9 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 6 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 943 miles [1,517.6 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take most of two days, a buggy would take 37 days and walking would take 54 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,809 miles [10,958 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,529 miles [12,116.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,405 miles [8,698.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Swartz, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer.

Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Rock Creek to see Pete ... Rock Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.

Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.

Also keep in mind that Swartz could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong parish. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Swartz) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>While we have tried to pick reasonable speeds, the rate of travel is very theoretical - obstacles like fences, hills, lakes, river crossings and rest stops have been ignored. When we say 'Days' of travel, we're assuming 8 hours of travel per day.
<5>The shortest line can be visualized by stretching a string on a Globe from Point A to Point B - this is known as a Great Circle Route. Where you might expect the shortest route from Swartz to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Swartz. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 32.5687, Longitude: -91.9852    
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 316.79 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 312.773 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 312.598 degrees.