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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Nelson Place, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Nelson Place 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 Nelson Place:
    • 34.776723, -106.334743
    • 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 Nelson Place
  • 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 Torrance County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Torrance County
    • Since Nelson Place is near Bernalillo County and also Valencia County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Bernalillo County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Valencia 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 Nelson Place

Communities Also Named Nelson Place ...

We found two communities that are also named Nelson Place.

Within New Mexico, the name Nelson Place is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Kansas
      • Butler 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 Kansas community of Nelson Place [Butler County].
    • Virginia
      • Newport News City
      • This Nelson Place is located in Newport News City and lies 1,670 miles [2,687.6 km]<2> to the east northeast of the Nelson Place that is located in Torrance County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Newport News City community of Nelson Place.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Nelson Place ...

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.

  • Antelope Springs
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Antelope Springs is located in Torrance County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Antelope Springs
  • Comanche Springs
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • Comanche Springs is located in Valencia County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Comanche Springs
  • Glover Place
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Glover Place is located in Torrance County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glover Place
  • King Place
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • King Place is located in Torrance County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for King Place
  • Meadow Lake
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Meadow Lake is located in Valencia County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadow Lake
  • Moorehead Place
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Moorehead Place is located in Torrance County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moorehead Place
  • Pine Springs
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Pine Springs is located in Torrance County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Springs
  • Ponderosa
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Ponderosa is located in Bernalillo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ponderosa
  • Thunderbird
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Thunderbird is located in Torrance County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thunderbird

How Far From Nelson Place to ...

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

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

  • Estancia, which is the Seat of Torrance County, lies 15 miles [24.1 km]<2> to the east. If you could walk a straight line from Nelson Place to Estancia, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take four to five hours.
  • Santa Fe, which is the State Capital of New Mexico, lies 65 miles [104.6 km] to the north northeast (NNE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than an hour, a buggy would take about three full days and walking would take most of three days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,636 miles [2,632.9 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take most of three days, a buggy would take 64 days and walking would take 93 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,200 miles [11,587.3 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 7,958 miles [12,807.2 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,871 miles [9,448.5 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 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 Nelson Place 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 from Point A (ie- Nelson Place) 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 Nelson Place 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 Nelson Place. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 34.7767, Longitude: -106.3347       In this case, the coordinates for Nelson Place have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 326.96 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 325.025 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 319.099 degrees.