RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Texas >> Fort Bend County >> Katy >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Katy, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Katy 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 Katy:
    • 29.791002, -95.826823
    • 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 Katy
  • 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 Fort Bend County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Fort Bend County
    • Since Katy is near Harris County and also Waller County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Harris County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Waller 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 Katy

Communities Also Named Katy ...

We found five communities that are also named Katy.

There is one other community in Texas that is also named Katy.

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

  • Communities Located In Texas ...
    • Harris County
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Harris County community of Katy.
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Kentucky
      • Carter 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 Kentucky community of Katy [Carter County].
    • Louisiana
      • Saint Mary Parish
      • This Katy is located in Saint Mary Parish and lies 258 miles [415.2 km]<2> to the east of the Katy that is located in Fort Bend County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Saint Mary Parish community of Katy.
    • Missouri
      • Vernon County
      • This Katy is located in Vernon County and lies 559 miles [899.6 km]<2> to the north of the Katy that is located in Fort Bend County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Vernon County community of Katy.
    • West Virginia
      • Marion County
      • This Katy is located in Marion County and lies 1,108 miles [1,783.2 km]<2> to the northeast of the Katy that is located in Fort Bend County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Marion County community of Katy.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Katy ...

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.

  • Falcon Point
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Falcon Point is located in Fort Bend County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Falcon Point
  • Fawn Lake
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Fawn Lake is located in Fort Bend County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fawn Lake
  • Governor Place
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Governor Place is located in Harris County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Governor Place
  • Heritage Meadows
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Heritage Meadows is located in Harris County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Heritage Meadows
  • Katyland
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Katyland is located in Harris County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Katyland
  • Memorial Parkway
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Memorial Parkway is located in Harris County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Memorial Parkway
  • Whispering Lakes
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Whispering Lakes is located in Harris County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Whispering Lakes
  • Williams Chase
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Williams Chase is located in Harris County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Williams Chase

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

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

  • Richmond, which is the Seat of Fort Bend County, lies 14 miles [22.5 km]<2> to the south southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Katy to Richmond, 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.
  • Austin, which is the State Capital of Texas, lies 119 miles [191.5 km] to the west northwest (WNW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take about two hours, a buggy would take 5 days and walking would take 7 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,238 miles [1,992.4 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take about three full days, a buggy would take 49 days and walking would take 71 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,104 miles [11,432.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,826 miles [12,594.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,701 miles [9,174.9 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 Katy 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 '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- Katy) 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 Katy 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 Katy. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 29.7910, Longitude: -95.8268       In this case, the coordinates for Katy have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 318.889 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 314.868 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 314.545 degrees.