RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Missouri >> Dent County >> Jack >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Jack, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Jack 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 Jack:
    • 37.576146, -91.619897
    • 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 Jack
  • 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 county-by-county basis. We have selected Dent County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Dent County
    • Since Jack is near Texas County and also Shannon County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Texas County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Shannon County
  • 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 Jack

Communities Also Named Jack ...

We found five communities that are also named Jack.

Within Missouri, the name Jack is unique.

Beyond Missouri, we know of five communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Alabama
      • Coffee County
      • This Jack is located in Coffee County and lies 523 miles [841.7 km]<1> to the southeast of the Jack that is located in Dent County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Coffee County community of Jack.
    • Kansas
      • Russell 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 Kansas community of Jack [Russell County].
    • Louisiana
      • Saint Helena Parish
      • This Jack is located in Saint Helena Parish and lies 474 miles [762.8 km]<1> to the south of the Jack that is located in Dent County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Saint Helena Parish community of Jack.
    • Mississippi
      • Copiah County
      • This Jack is located in Copiah County and lies 388 miles [624.4 km]<1> to the south of the Jack that is located in Dent County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Copiah County community of Jack.
    • Virginia
      • Dinwiddie County
      • This Jack is located in Dinwiddie County and lies 773 miles [1,244 km]<1> to the east of the Jack that is located in Dent County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Dinwiddie County community of Jack.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Jack ...

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.

  • Cedargrove
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Cedargrove is located in Shannon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedargrove
  • Deep Ford
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Deep Ford is located in Dent County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Deep Ford
  • Dent Ford
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Dent Ford is located in Dent County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dent Ford
  • Fawn
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Fawn is located in Dent County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fawn
  • Joy
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Joy is located in Dent County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Joy
  • Maples
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Maples is located in Texas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maples
  • Ranger
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Ranger is located in Dent County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ranger
  • Smoky Hollow
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Smoky Hollow is located in Dent County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Smoky Hollow
  • Turtle
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Turtle is located in Dent County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Turtle

How Far From Jack 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 Jack to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Jack and extending to:

  • Salem, which is the Seat of Dent County, lies just to the Northeast.
  • Jefferson City, which is the State Capital of Missouri, lies 75 miles [120.7 km]<1> to the north northwest (NNW). If you could drive a straight line from Jack to Jefferson City, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 5 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of three days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 795 miles [1,279.4 km] to the east (E). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 31 days and walking would take 46 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,543 miles [10,529.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,278 miles [11,712.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,158 miles [8,301 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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- Jack) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's 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 Jack 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 county. 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>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.
<4>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 Jack 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 Jack. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.5761, Longitude: -91.6199    
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 316.956 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 313.631 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 311.542 degrees.