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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Sweet Home, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Sweet Home 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 Sweet Home:
    • 29.345245, -97.071652
    • 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 Sweet Home
  • 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 Lavaca County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lavaca County
    • Since Sweet Home is near DeWitt County and also Gonzales County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for DeWitt County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Gonzales 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 Sweet Home

Communities Also Named Sweet Home ...

We found twelve communities that are also named Sweet Home.

There are two communities within Texas that are also named Sweet Home.

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

  • Communities Located In Texas ...
    • Guadalupe County
      • This Sweet Home is located in Guadalupe County and lies 58 miles [93.3 km]<1> to the west of the Sweet Home that is located in Lavaca County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Guadalupe County community of Sweet Home.
    • Lee County
      • This Sweet Home is located in Lee County and lies 64 miles [103 km]<1> to the north northeast of the Sweet Home that is located in Lavaca County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lee County community of Sweet Home.
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Alabama
      • Talladega County
      • This Sweet Home is located in Talladega County and lies 718 miles [1,155.5 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Sweet Home that is located in Lavaca County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Talladega County community of Sweet Home.
    • Arkansas
      • Perry County
      • This Sweet Home is located in Perry County and lies 465 miles [748.3 km]<1> to the north northeast of the Sweet Home that is located in Lavaca County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Perry County community of Sweet Home.
      • Pulaski County
      • This Sweet Home is located in Pulaski County and lies 464 miles [746.7 km] to the northeast of the Sweet Home that is located in Lavaca County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Pulaski County community of Sweet Home.
    • Illinois
      • Jo Daviess County
      • This community is historic<2> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Illinois community of Sweet Home [Jo Daviess County].
    • Indiana
      • Saint Joseph County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<3> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Indiana community of Sweet Home [Saint Joseph County].
    • Kansas
      • Smith County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<3> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Kansas community of Sweet Home [Smith County].
    • Louisiana
      • Assumption Parish
      • This Sweet Home is located in Assumption Parish and lies 365 miles [587.4 km]<1> to the east of the Sweet Home that is located in Lavaca County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Assumption Parish community of Sweet Home.
    • North Carolina
      • Iredell County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<3> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the North Carolina community of Sweet Home [Iredell County].
    • Oregon
      • Linn County
      • This Sweet Home is located in Linn County and lies 1,744 miles [2,806.7 km]<1> to the northwest of the Sweet Home that is located in Lavaca County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Linn County community of Sweet Home.
    • Tennessee
      • Dickson County
      • This Sweet Home is located in Dickson County and lies 737 miles [1,186.1 km]<1> to the northeast of the Sweet Home that is located in Lavaca County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Dickson County community of Sweet Home.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Sweet Home ...

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.

  • Concrete
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Concrete is located in DeWitt County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Concrete
  • Edgar
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Edgar is located in DeWitt County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edgar
  • Glaze City
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Glaze City is located in Gonzales County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glaze City
  • Good Hope
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Good Hope is located in Lavaca County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Good Hope
  • Hope
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Hope is located in Lavaca County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hope
  • Pearl City
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Pearl City is located in DeWitt County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pearl City
  • Petersville
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Petersville is located in DeWitt County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Petersville
  • Terryville
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Terryville is located in DeWitt County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Terryville

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

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

  • Hallettsville, which is the Seat of Lavaca County, lies 10 miles [16.1 km]<1> to the northeast. If you could walk a straight line from Sweet Home to Hallettsville, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take a little over three hours.
  • Austin, which is the State Capital of Texas, lies 75 miles [120.7 km] to the north northwest (NNW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take most of three days and walking would take 5 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,317 miles [2,119.5 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take about three full days, a buggy would take 52 days and walking would take 75 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,176 miles [11,548.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,900 miles [12,713.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,776 miles [9,295.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Sweet Home) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>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 Sweet Home, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>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 Sweet Home 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.
<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 Sweet Home 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 Sweet Home. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 29.3452, Longitude: -97.0717       In this case, the coordinates for Sweet Home have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 319.629 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 315.684 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 315.105 degrees.