RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of New Mexico >> Guadalupe County >> Arabella >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

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

  • Weather ...
  • 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 Arabella:
    • 34.863672, -104.784158
    • 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 Arabella
  • 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 Guadalupe County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Guadalupe County
    • Since Arabella is near DeBaca County and also San Miguel County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for DeBaca County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for San Miguel 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 Arabella

Communities Also Named Arabella ...

We found two communities that are also named Arabella.

Within New Mexico, the name Arabella is unique.

Beyond New Mexico, we know of two communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these two communities, one is located in the United States and the other in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • California
      • Lake County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the California community of Arabella [Lake County].
    • Saskatchewan
      • This Arabella lies 1,194 miles [1,921.6 km]<2> to the north of the Arabella that is located in Guadalupe County.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Arabella ...

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.

  • Double Mills
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Double Mills is located in Guadalupe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Double Mills
  • Guadalupe
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Guadalupe is located in DeBaca County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Guadalupe
  • Milagro
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • Milagro is located in Guadalupe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Milagro
  • Park Springs
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Park Springs is located in San Miguel County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Park Springs
  • Vegas Junction
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Vegas Junction is located in Guadalupe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vegas Junction

How Far From Arabella to ...

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

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

  • Santa Rosa, which is the Seat of Guadalupe County, lies just to the Northeast.
  • Santa Fe, which is the State Capital of New Mexico, lies 86 miles [138.4 km]<2> to the northwest (NW). If you could drive a straight line from Arabella to Santa Fe, 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 1,551 miles [2,496.1 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take most of three days, a buggy would take 61 days and walking would take 89 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,146 miles [11,500.4 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,902 miles [12,717 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,809 miles [9,348.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird 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 Arabella 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.
<2>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Arabella) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Arabella 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 Arabella. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 34.8637, Longitude: -104.7842       In this case, the coordinates for Arabella have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 325.825 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 323.684 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 318.299 degrees.