RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Texas >> Dawson County >> O'Donnell >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in O'Donnell, we use the following websites to find information relevant to O'Donnell 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 O'Donnell:
    • 32.965201, -101.830840
    • 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 O'Donnell
  • 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 Dawson County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Dawson County
    • Since O'Donnell is near Lynn County and also Borden County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lynn County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Borden 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 O'Donnell

Communities Also Named O'Donnell ...

We found six communities that are also named O'Donnell.

There is one other community in Texas that is also named O'Donnell.

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

In addition to the above occurrences of O'Donnell, we know of another community located outside of the United States and Canada.

  • Communities Located In Texas ...
    • Lynn County
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lynn County community of O'Donnell.
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Maryland
      • Howard County
      • This O'Donnell is located in Howard County and lies 1,453 miles [2,338.4 km]<1> to the east northeast of the O'Donnell that is located in Dawson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Howard County community of O'Donnell.
    • Michigan
      • Barry 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 O'Donnell [Barry County].
    • Ontario
      • 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 Ontario community of O'Donnell.
    • Pennsylvania
      • Jefferson County
      • This O'Donnell is located in Jefferson County and lies 1,375 miles [2,212.8 km]<1> to the east northeast of the O'Donnell that is located in Dawson County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Jefferson County community of O'Donnell.
  • Communities Beyond North America ...
    • Philippines
      • Distance: 8,080 miles [13,003.5 km]<1> to the northwest
      • Open a Google Map centered on O'Donnell

Curious and Interesting Names Near O'Donnell ...

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.

  • Draw
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Draw is located in Lynn County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Draw
  • Grandview
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Grandview is located in Dawson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grandview
  • Hindman
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Hindman is located in Dawson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hindman
  • Key
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Key is located in Dawson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Key
  • Mesquite ‑ Historic
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Mesquite is located in Borden County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mesquite
  • Plains
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Plains is located in Borden County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plains
  • Pride
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Pride is located in Dawson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pride
  • Punkin Center
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Punkin Center is located in Dawson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Punkin Center

How Far From O'Donnell to ...

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

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

  • Lamesa, which is the Seat of Dawson County, lies 17 miles [27.4 km]<1> to the south southwest. If you could walk a straight line from O'Donnell to Lamesa, 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 five to six hours.
  • Austin, which is the State Capital of Texas, lies 304 miles [489.2 km] to the southeast (SE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take five to six hours, a buggy would take 12 days and walking would take 18 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,440 miles [2,317.5 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take most of three days, a buggy would take 57 days and walking would take 82 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,155 miles [11,514.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,902 miles [12,717 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,792 miles [9,321.3 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- O'Donnell) 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 Rock Creek to see Pete ... Rock 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 O'Donnell 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 O'Donnell 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 O'Donnell. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 32.9652, Longitude: -101.8308       In this case, the coordinates for O'Donnell have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 323.429 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 320.626 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 316.975 degrees.