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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Pelican, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Pelican 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 Pelican:
    • 30.366874, -95.032155
    • 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 Pelican
  • 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 Liberty County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Liberty County
    • Since Pelican is near San Jacinto County and also Montgomery County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for San Jacinto County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Montgomery 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 Pelican

Communities Also Named Pelican ...

We found five communities that are also named Pelican.

Within Texas, the name Pelican is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Alaska
      • This Pelican lies 2,719 miles [4,375.8 km]<1> to the north northwest of the Pelican that is located in Liberty County.
    • Alberta
      • We haven't found the location of this community yet.
    • Louisiana
      • De Soto Parish
      • This Pelican is located in De Soto Parish and lies 135 miles [217.3 km]<1> to the northeast of the Pelican that is located in Liberty County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the De Soto Parish community of Pelican.
    • Ontario
      • This Pelican lies 1,372 miles [2,208 km]<1> to the north of the Pelican that is located in Liberty County.
    • Wisconsin
      • Forest 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 Wisconsin community of Pelican [Forest County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Pelican ...

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.

  • Grace
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Grace is located in Liberty County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grace
  • Grady
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Grady is located in Liberty County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grady
  • Hightower
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Hightower is located in Liberty County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hightower
  • Keno
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Keno is located in Liberty County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Keno
  • Nimrod ‑ Historic
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Nimrod is located in Liberty County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nimrod
  • Seaman
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Seaman is located in Liberty County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Seaman
  • Shepherd
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
  • Snuff Ridge
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Snuff Ridge is located in Liberty County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Snuff Ridge

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

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

  • Liberty, which is the Seat of Liberty County, lies 26 miles [41.8 km]<1> to the south southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Pelican to Liberty, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take just about two full days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take just over a day.
  • Austin, which is the State Capital of Texas, lies 161 miles [259.1 km] to the west (W). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than three hours, a buggy would take 7 days and walking would take 10 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,176 miles [1,892.6 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take about three full days, a buggy would take 46 days and walking would take 67 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,042 miles [11,333 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,764 miles [12,494.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,640 miles [9,076.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a '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- Pelican) 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 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 Pelican 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're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>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.
<5>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 Pelican 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 Pelican. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 30.3669, Longitude: -95.0322       In this case, the coordinates for Pelican have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 318.461 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 314.439 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 314.156 degrees.