RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Texas >> Zavala County >> Crystal City >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Crystal City, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Crystal City 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 Crystal City:
    • 28.690846, -99.825713
    • 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 Crystal City
  • 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 Zavala County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Zavala County
    • Since Crystal City is near Dimmit County and also Uvalde County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Dimmit County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Uvalde 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 Crystal City

Communities Also Named Crystal City ...

We found four communities that are also named Crystal City.

Within Texas, the name Crystal City is unique.

Beyond Texas, we know of four communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these four communities, three are located in the United States and one is in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Manitoba
      • This Crystal City lies 1,412 miles [2,272.4 km]<1> to the north of the Crystal City that is located in Zavala County.
    • Michigan
      • Benzie 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 Michigan community of Crystal City [Benzie County].
    • Missouri
      • Jefferson County
      • This Crystal City is located in Jefferson County and lies 852 miles [1,371.2 km]<1> to the northeast of the Crystal City that is located in Zavala County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Jefferson County community of Crystal City.
    • Virginia
      • Arlington 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 Virginia community of Crystal City [Arlington County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Crystal City ...

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.

  • Bushy Creek
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Bushy Creek is located in Zavala County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bushy Creek
    • Bushy Creek has also been known as:
    • Bushy Creek Colonia
  • Popeye Lake
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Popeye Lake is located in Zavala County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Popeye Lake
    • Popeye Lake has also been known as:
    • Popeye Lake Colonia
  • River Spur
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • River Spur is located in Zavala County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for River Spur
  • Valley Wells
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Valley Wells is located in Dimmit County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Valley Wells
  • Winter Haven
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Winter Haven is located in Dimmit County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Winter Haven

How Far From Crystal City 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 city such as Crystal City to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Austin, which is the State Capital of Texas, lies 165 miles [265.5 km]<1> to the northeast (NE). If you could drive a straight line from Crystal City to Austin, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take about three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 10 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 7 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,479 miles [2,380.2 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take most of three days, a buggy would take 58 days and walking would take 84 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,316 miles [11,774 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 8,047 miles [12,950.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,925 miles [9,535.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

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 drawn from Point A (ie- Crystal City) 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 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 Crystal City 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 Crystal City 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 Crystal City. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 28.6908, Longitude: -99.8257       In this case, the coordinates for Crystal City have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 321.351 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 317.642 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 316.325 degrees.