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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Pritchett, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Pritchett 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 Pritchett:
    • 32.661715, -95.018230
    • 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 Pritchett
  • 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 Upshur County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Upshur County
    • Since Pritchett is near Gregg County and also Wood County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Gregg County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Wood 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 Pritchett

Communities Also Named Pritchett ...

We found two communities that are also named Pritchett.

Within Texas, the name Pritchett is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Colorado
      • Baca County
      • This Pritchett is located in Baca County and lies 549 miles [883.5 km]<1> to the northwest of the Pritchett that is located in Upshur County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Baca County community of Pritchett.
    • North Carolina
      • Rockingham 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 North Carolina community of Pritchett [Rockingham County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Pritchett ...

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.

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

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

  • Gilmer, which is the Seat of Upshur County, lies just to the Northeast.
  • Austin, which is the State Capital of Texas, lies 230 miles [370.1 km]<1> to the southwest (SW). If you could drive a straight line from Pritchett to Austin, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take nearly four hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 13 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 9 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,092 miles [1,757.4 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take over two days, a buggy would take 43 days and walking would take 62 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,923 miles [11,141.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,652 miles [12,314.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,529 miles [8,898.1 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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Pritchett) 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 Pritchett 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 Pritchett 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 Pritchett. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 32.6617, Longitude: -95.0182       In this case, the coordinates for Pritchett have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 318.75 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 315.075 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 313.885 degrees.