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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Shields, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Shields 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 Shields:
    • 31.593210, -99.424227
    • 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 Shields
  • 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 Coleman County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Coleman County
    • Since Shields is near McCulloch County and also Brown County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for McCulloch County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Brown 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 Shields

Communities Also Named Shields ...

We found eighteen communities that are also named Shields.

Within Texas, the name Shields is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • British Columbia
      • This community is historic<1> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the British Columbia community of Shields.
    • Colorado
      • Arapahoe 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 Colorado community of Shields [Arapahoe County].
    • Georgia
      • Morgan County
      • This community is historic<1> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Georgia community of Shields [Morgan County].
    • Illinois
      • Jefferson County
      • This Shields is located in Jefferson County and lies 768 miles [1,236 km]<3> to the northeast of the Shields that is located in Coleman County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Jefferson County community of Shields.
    • Indiana
      • Jackson County
      • This Shields is located in Jackson County and lies 908 miles [1,461.3 km]<3> to the northeast of the Shields that is located in Coleman County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Jackson County community of Shields.
    • Kansas
      • Jefferson 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 Kansas community of Shields [Jefferson County].
      • Lane County
      • This Shields is located in Lane County and lies 488 miles [785.4 km]<3> to the north of the Shields that is located in Coleman County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lane County community of Shields.
      • Shawnee County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Kansas community of Shields [Shawnee County].
    • Kentucky
      • Harlan County
      • This Shields is located in Harlan County and lies 997 miles [1,604.5 km]<3> to the east northeast of the Shields that is located in Coleman County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Harlan County community of Shields.
    • Michigan
      • Saginaw County
      • This Shields is located in Saginaw County and lies 1,168 miles [1,879.7 km]<3> to the northeast of the Shields that is located in Coleman County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Saginaw County community of Shields.
    • Montana
      • Park County
      • This Shields is located in Park County and lies 1,158 miles [1,863.6 km]<3> to the north northwest of the Shields that is located in Coleman County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Park County community of Shields.
    • North Dakota
      • Grant County
      • This Shields is located in Grant County and lies 1,014 miles [1,631.9 km]<3> to the north of the Shields that is located in Coleman County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Grant County community of Shields.
    • Ohio
      • Belmont 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 Ohio community of Shields [Belmont 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 Shields.
    • Pennsylvania
      • Allegheny County
      • This Shields is located in Allegheny County and lies 1,234 miles [1,985.9 km]<3> to the northeast of the Shields that is located in Coleman County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Allegheny County community of Shields.
    • Saskatchewan
      • This Shields lies 1,440 miles [2,317.5 km]<3> to the north northwest of the Shields that is located in Coleman County.
    • Virginia
      • Accomack County
      • This Shields is located in Accomack County and lies 1,397 miles [2,248.3 km]<3> to the east northeast of the Shields that is located in Coleman County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Accomack County community of Shields.
      • Prince Edward County
      • This Shields is located in Prince Edward County and lies 1,243 miles [2,000.4 km] to the east northeast of the Shields that is located in Coleman County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Prince Edward County community of Shields.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Shields ...

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.

  • Hays Crossing
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Hays Crossing is located in Coleman County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hays Crossing
  • Knight Crossing
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Knight Crossing is located in McCulloch County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Knight Crossing
  • Liberty
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Liberty is located in Coleman County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Liberty
  • Military Crossing
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Military Crossing is located in McCulloch County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Military Crossing
  • Mitchell Crossing
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Mitchell Crossing is located in McCulloch County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mitchell Crossing
  • Rockwood
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Stacy
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Stacy is located in McCulloch County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stacy
  • Trickham
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Trickham is located in Coleman County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trickham
    • Former name for Trickham:
    • Trick'em
  • Walker Crossing
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Walker Crossing is located in McCulloch County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Walker Crossing

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

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

  • Coleman, which is the Seat of Coleman County, lies 16 miles [25.7 km]<3> to the north. If you could walk a straight line from Shields to Coleman, with an average speed<5> 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 135 miles [217.3 km] to the southeast (SE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than three hours, a buggy would take 6 days and walking would take 8 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,355 miles [2,180.7 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take about three full days, a buggy would take 53 days and walking would take 77 days.
  • The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,145 miles [11,498.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,883 miles [12,686.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,763 miles [9,274.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>'

Footnotes ...

<1>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Shields, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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 Shields 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>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Shields) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>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.
<6>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 Shields 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 Shields. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 31.5932, Longitude: -99.4242       In this case, the coordinates for Shields have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 321.553 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 318.239 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 315.958 degrees.