Reipod

Thanks for all the interesting feedback and discussion. I guess being fairly new to the whole benchmark hunting process it would be only a matter of time before I ran into something that was out of the norm for me. I feel a little better knowing it "happens more than I know" and what Papa-Bear said there does make sense.

Was up north this weekend at the cabin, had my data sheets and did some benchmark hunting, and I didn't realize it until I returned home that I had found something I hadn't run across before. It would seem that SKELTON RM 2 http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=RN1668 and 0980 L http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=RN0812 share the same disc, but both have different PID's and data sheets. Is this normal? Why would they re-stamp the disc with a different name? Is this because they wanted to make an existing disc a reference mark for a station thus giving it dual names so the one name would correspond with the station it references? Thanks!

Can a reset take the place of an older disk if it's in a different spot? I think the original from the MNDOT papers say it was in the southeastern corner..while this is in the southwestern corner. Does it take it's place; even if not the same position more just as a, "Hey we got another on this bridge somewhere"? Or perhaps the original description is incorrect and it has always been in the southwestern corner. Lot of good info though above, interesting to read. Thanks!

Had some time off work recently and decided to look for some benchmarks. I had the data for "Q 27" PID: PP1497. I didn't locate anything but I did stumble upon "Q 27 RESET" stamped in 1975, I logged that here: http://www.Waymarking.com/waymarks/WM45C6 If I'm reading this right it is a Vertical Control disk from the National Geodetic Survey, but I couldn't find any data sheet for this in the NGS database. Perhaps I'm not looking properly or it's not really in there. Our local agencies records, Mn/DOT says this: I'm assuming that since the bridge was rebuilt or repaired that they replaced the disk. When this happens do they take the 'old' disk and just re-stamp it with "RESET" to imply it's the same disk just RESET in a new position? Also what does one do with something like this if indeed it's a NGS disk but not mentioned in the database with no PID to reference to report it? Thanks for any insight into this matter.

Thanks for the feedback, I'm beginning to understand all this little-by-little and it's all forming a better over all picture. Yeah it's amazing how many are in a city or county, been doing some research on my area as well and even though they're not all logged with the NGS they're various ones all over the place. Family doesn't see the fun in it when I tell them about it, but each little discovery is exciting for me.

Hate to dig this back up; been busy and doing other things, lot of information posted above that made my brain feel like it was going to explode. I'm going to go over it again, I see there was some discussion as to what it was the mark is. I found a few of these marks yesterday, seeming to be the same type of mark as above. These however are clearly stamped with a "NUMBER" and "RAMSEY COUNTY BENCHMARK". The one I found previous would appear to have had this on it but it was worn off over time, not sure though. Corner from which it is located. Close up. Witness Post. It would appear from this site that it's a vertical control mark. http://www.co.ramsey.mn.us/cs/verticalcontrol.htm I found PLSS thrown around while flipping through these links but I couldn't 100% make the connection from one to the other. If it is indeed a vertical control benchmark, why is this something that's not logged with the NGS? Do the government and county each have there own marks and regulations? Sorry for all the newbie questions, I appreciate all the feedback though it helps me process this all better.

Ah! Thanks for that; I had no idea about the PLSS. I'll have to do some reading then on this so I can further my knowledge so when I run into them again I can take this into consideration. Thank you very much.

I'm fairly new to the whole finding benchmark process and today I was driving from one I just found to another when I saw this marker in the middle of an intersection. I took a couple pictures and decided to check it out when I got home but I'm unable to find anything that is useful in determining what this is. The mark is located in at the intersection of Bellaire Ave. and County Road E in White Bear Lake, Minnesota which is located in Ramsey County. There were no physical marks on the small disk but it would appear that something may have been on the surface but it got worn down after time. Here's a shot of the intersection Here's a shot of the mark close up I did a little poking around looking for data sheets with the NGS and the closest that I come up with is AH4851 which is down Bellarie a bit when I enter the coordinates in; yet I know coordinates are not always right on most the time. Thing is the record at the top says "Msg=FATAL_ERROR - No Marks found" when I do bring that record up. So my question is: Is this AH4851 or perhaps something else that's unregistered or have I missed something altogether. Heck this could be nothing too and I'm just thinking it's something. Any help or pointers on how I can clear something up like this in the future would be appreciated. Funny thing is further down the road at the intersection of McKnight and County Road E I think I spotted another one but I didn't have time to stop for that. Thanks for any help!