RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Texas >> Smith County >> Blackjack >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Blackjack, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Blackjack 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 Blackjack:
    • 32.205711, -95.178002
    • 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 Blackjack
  • 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 Smith County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Smith County
    • Since Blackjack is near Cherokee County and also Rusk County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Cherokee County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Rusk 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 Blackjack

Communities Also Named Blackjack ...

We found nine communities that are also named Blackjack.

There are two communities within Texas that are also named Blackjack.

Beyond Texas, we know of seven communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Located In Texas ...
    • Cherokee County
      • This Blackjack is located in Cherokee County and lies 11 miles [17.7 km]<1> to the south southeast of the Blackjack that is located in Smith County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Cherokee County community of Blackjack.
    • Sabine County
      • This Blackjack is located in Sabine County and lies 102 miles [164.2 km]<1> to the southeast of the Blackjack that is located in Smith County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Sabine County community of Blackjack.
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Georgia
      • Coweta County
      • This Blackjack is located in Coweta County and lies 615 miles [989.7 km]<1> to the east of the Blackjack that is located in Smith County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Coweta County community of Blackjack.
    • Kansas
      • Douglas County
      • This community is historic<2> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Kansas community of Blackjack [Douglas County].
    • Mississippi
      • Oktibbeha County
      • This Blackjack is located in Oktibbeha County and lies 383 miles [616.4 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Blackjack that is located in Smith County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Oktibbeha County community of Blackjack.
    • Missouri
      • Saint Clair County
      • This Blackjack is located in Saint Clair County and lies 399 miles [642.1 km]<1> to the north of the Blackjack that is located in Smith County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Saint Clair County community of Blackjack.
      • Saint Louis County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<3> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Missouri community of Blackjack [Saint Louis County].
    • Ohio
      • Hocking County
      • This Blackjack is located in Hocking County and lies 867 miles [1,395.3 km]<1> to the northeast of the Blackjack that is located in Smith County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Hocking County community of Blackjack.
    • Oklahoma
      • Sequoyah County
      • This Blackjack is located in Sequoyah County and lies 224 miles [360.5 km]<1> to the north of the Blackjack that is located in Smith County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Sequoyah County community of Blackjack.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Blackjack ...

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.

  • Blackjack
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Blackjack is located in Cherokee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blackjack
  • Brushy
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Brushy is located in Cherokee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brushy
  • Chapel Hill
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Chapel Hill is located in Smith County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chapel Hill
  • Flint
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Griffin
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Griffin is located in Cherokee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Griffin
  • Henrys Chapel
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Henrys Chapel is located in Cherokee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Henrys Chapel
  • Jamestown ‑ Historic
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Jamestown is located in Smith County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jamestown
    • Jamestown has also been known as:
    • Jimtown
  • Lee Spring
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Lee Spring is located in Smith County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lee Spring
  • London
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • London is located in Rusk County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for London
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Noonday
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
      • Noonday is located in Smith County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Noonday
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 722 people
    • Old London
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
      • Old London is located in Rusk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Old London
    • Pine Springs
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
      • Pine Springs is located in Smith County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Springs
    • Price
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Teaselville
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
      • Teaselville is located in Smith County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Teaselville
    • Walnut Grove
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Walnut Grove is located in Smith County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Walnut Grove

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

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

  • Tyler, which is the Seat of Smith County, lies 12 miles [19.3 km]<1> to the northwest. If you could walk a straight line from Blackjack to Tyler, with an average speed<5> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take five to six hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take nearly four hours.
  • Austin, which is the State Capital of Texas, lies 202 miles [325.1 km] to the southwest (SW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take a little over three hours, a buggy would take 8 days and walking would take 12 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,116 miles [1,796 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take over two days, a buggy would take 44 days and walking would take 64 days.
  • The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,953 miles [11,189.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,681 miles [12,361.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,557 miles [8,943.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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- Blackjack) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>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 Blackjack, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>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 Blackjack 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.
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>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.
<6>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 Blackjack 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 Blackjack. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 32.2057, Longitude: -95.1780       In this case, the coordinates for Blackjack have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 318.799 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 315.073 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 314.011 degrees.