RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Wisconsin >> Jefferson County >> Blackhawk Island >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Blackhawk Island, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Blackhawk Island 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 Blackhawk Island:
    • 42.898339, -88.892330
    • 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 Blackhawk Island
  • 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 Jefferson County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Jefferson County
    • Since Blackhawk Island is near Rock County and also Dane County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Rock County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Dane 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 Blackhawk Island

Communities Also Named Blackhawk Island ...

We found one communities that are also named Blackhawk Island.

Within Wisconsin, the name Blackhawk Island is unique.

Beyond Wisconsin, there is another community also named Blackhawk Island in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Illinois
      • Winnebago County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Illinois community of Blackhawk Island [Winnebago County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Blackhawk Island ...

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.

  • Breezy Knoll
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Breezy Knoll is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Breezy Knoll
  • Charlie Bluff
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Charlie Bluff is located in Rock County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Charlie Bluff
  • Cold Spring
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Cold Spring is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cold Spring
  • Hickory Hills
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Hickory Hills is located in Dane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hickory Hills
  • Highwood
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Highwood is located in Dane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Highwood
  • Hillside
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Hillside is located in Dane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hillside
  • Indian Heights
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Indian Heights is located in Dane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indian Heights
  • Maple Beach
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Maple Beach is located in Rock County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maple Beach
  • Rockdale
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Rockdale is located in Dane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rockdale
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 216 people
  • Vinnie Ha Ha
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Vinnie Ha Ha is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vinnie Ha Ha

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in Blackhawk Island and extending to:

  • Jefferson, which is the Seat of Jefferson County, lies just to the North Northeast.
  • Madison, which is the State Capital of Wisconsin, lies 28 miles [45.1 km]<2> to the west northwest (WNW). If you could walk a straight line from Blackhawk Island to Madison, with an average speed<3> 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.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 676 miles [1,087.9 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 27 days and walking would take 39 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,178 miles [9,942.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,922 miles [11,139.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,811 miles [7,742.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Blackhawk Island 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.
<2>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 from Point A (ie- Blackhawk Island) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Blackhawk Island 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 Blackhawk Island. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.8983, Longitude: -88.8923       In this case, the coordinates for Blackhawk Island have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 315.273 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 312.43 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 308.905 degrees.