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TillaMurphs

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Everything posted by TillaMurphs

  1. That is not something you ever want to hear.
  2. I want to thank Bill and Mike who both graciously helped me confirm the description of the property!!!! Thank you gentlemen! (I also learned a new word: Aliquots) Above, Bill said: " It is very common for deeds to avoid stating the actual price. They just list $1 or $10 and "other valuable considerations" (ovc) in order to have something to make it a legal contract." I talked to a local person here who deals with land transactions and he agreed and said that still happens even in the present day. I had never heard of this practice. However, that explains a reason why 200 acres could have been transferred for the tiny price of "$10 and OVC". I hope everyone had a good weekend.
  3. Hello folks, I have an old property description that I am trying to figure out. This is not for legal purposes; just historical interest. It is property that my long ago deceased grandfather sold in the 40's for $10 (!) (I found a copy of the warranty deed). It involves a lot of 1/4 of this and 1/4 of that and west of this and south of that. In the past I have a little bit of luck ciphering this kind of stuff out, but this one is too complicated for me. I figure I just don't know how to interpret the description syntax correctly. Anyway... to make a long story short, is there anyone who would volunteer to help me understand this paragraph of description? I am curious how much property he sold for $10 and the deed does not list an amount of property. I would rather not post the description paragraph on this public forum just because it is close to where I currently live. However if you message me through geocaching I will send the description. Thanks for any help, and I apologize for the off-topic. The TillaMurphs
  4. No mark look-ups today!
  5. Found another this week. HB0752. USGS + State as with most of the others above. https://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=hb0752 https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/ds_mark.prl?PidBox=HB0752
  6. Thank you for alerting us to this sad information. George was always very helpful to me. I also greatly enjoyed "Bottles, Pots, Pans...." and other information that he produced. His passion and stories will be missed. Very sad. Condolences
  7. Cool, Thanks for the link, and thanks to you others for the additional information and photos.
  8. Foxtrot Xray - thanks for the guesses! Mike - thanks for the idea of checking others in the run. Mr. Doyle - thanks for the answer! I guess that explains the hole in the top. I will see what I can do to possibly find a USGS pub discussing this. I had spent quite a few hours searching through the online Special Publications before I posted my question and came up empty. However, my search was mainly looking for any (online) pubs obviously mentioning Virginia. Now that you have narrowed the timeframe and mentioned that it is likely a magnetic station I will see what I can find. EDIT: After looking a bit more I searched through the following Special Publications listing magnetic observations and found quite a few in Virginia. However, I did not find the one at the Nelson County Courthouse in Lovingston, Virginia. Special Publication 9 (1910) Special Publication 15 (1912) Special Publication 20 (1913) Special Publication 25 (1914) Special Publication 33&36 (1915) Special Publication 42 (1916) Special Publication 51 (1917) Special Pubs 55 and 64 for 1918 and 1919 are not online and I can't seem to find any information before 1910. Thank you.
  9. I found the mark below yesterday. It is a USC&GS chiseled square but I am trying to figure out the abbreviation around the mark. Any ideas what "N M" would stand for? I am not positive about the "U S C & G S" letters but it definitely has an "N" and an "M" on the bottom. (And there might be a letter or symbol between them). Links to mark: GW0645 - geocaching GW0645 - NGS
  10. Wow. That is bizarre. I hope the property of you and yours is safe. Take care,
  11. Hi again BenchmarkHunter, Thanks for the additional information! I should have mentioned that I have already searched the NGS database for this mark - by elevation, station name and location and came up empty - even searching for Destroyed marks. Since this was a USGS disk I did not have a lot of hope that I would find it in the NGS database. That's why I am resorting to historical USGS topo maps as a last resort. Assuming I don't find anything on the topos, and it does not look like I will, I will write to the USGS to have them look through their paper records for the area. Thanks for the help on the topos!
  12. OK - You guys are helping. BenchmarkHunter thank you! And, thank you also Butano. We have hunted for years, but rarely use the USGS topos. So, on these USGS topo maps, if it is an "X" only, with no "BM" or triangle, I should not expect to find any physical object set by a surveyor - is that correct? This was a general question but currently I am searching for the location of a U.S.G.S. mark set between 1910 and 1919 somewhere in the vicinity of the Yachats River Road on the map. The mark has since been destroyed but may or may not have been recorded as such. I believe the elevation of the mark was 44 feet but I am still trying to confirm that. It looks like the mark was NOT at 64 feet. Thanks
  13. I am trying to determine which topo map symbols would represent the location of a disk on topos from 1922 and 1956. Here are the topos that I am looking at. I have put yellow highlights near locations in question. Which spots would represent a disk location? I have read these 2 documents but I am still a bit confused. - TOPO MAP SYMBOLS - USGS - TOPO MAP SYMBOLS Thanks
  14. Hi all, I am in the process of trying to track down the original location of a US Geodetic Survey disk that was found displaced on the ground in a location that is not likely where it was originally monumented. It is dated 191X (can't decipher the "X" for sure but it looks like it is probably either a "9" or a "0"). Something I found interesting was that the fine for destruction was only $50 instead of the typical $250. Has anyone else found a USGS disk with only a $50 fine? I have found older USGS disks (circa 1898) with a $250 fine so I am wondering if the $50 fine on this later disk might have been a misprint? Jerry Penry's excellent American Surveyor article mentions the ubiquitous $250 fine but does not say anything about a $50 fine. Here is a link to his article: $250 Fine or Imprisonment for Disturbing This Mark The displaced disk in question was found by an acquaintance and I am still trying to get good photos. However, the basic disk looks like DT0715 that was found by AZcachemeister . Southpawaz and others. Below is a picture of the DT0715 disk taken by bedstefader skjule: Just wondered how common the $50 USGS disks were and if the $50 might have been a misprint? Thanks
  15. If you want the mark to be easily found in the future then generate a log with good photos and description. Since you asked, I think painting of the mark by a non professional is not a good idea for all the reasons described by others above. I admire your enthusiasm. Happy Hunting!
  16. Congratulations on your find. Thanks for posting a picture. Unfortunately, like many marks, that one is not in the geocaching.com database (or the NGS database). Therefore it is not log-able directly as a Benchmark on geocaching.com. If want to log it somewhere, you could log it in the U.S. Benchmarks section of Waymarking.com - a site associated with geocaching.com. You may already know about this, if not, here is a link: Waymarking.com US Benchmarks section Happy finding!
  17. I agree with you. If I know of one that has been destroyed I would go back to re-log. Or, if I happen to be near one that is very remote and has not been visited in a log time, and not since my last report, I might re-report it - at least to geocaching. Other than that I don't typically re-log or re-report (although if I am in the vicinity, I might wave as I drive by).
  18. Received the following reply from Monkeykat: "Thanks for the notice, I realized there was a problem late Tuesday, then forgot to fix it Wednesday, but it is taken care of now. Glad to hear people are still using the viewer, I took a database dump from NGS last month, so the marks should be pretty up to date." Monkeykat's done a great job with the BM viewer site over the years - he's provided a tool that makes this hobby more rewarding for all of us Thanks for finding out about this Ernmark. And BIG THANK YOU to Monkeykat for his site!
  19. Pretty close to 100 percent likelihood that Groundspeak will never update or otherwise improve the benchmark part of Geocaching.com, in my opinion. Well, maybe if there is money to be made in it, but they have never tried to promote benchmark activities on this site, and in fact have done the opposite. Not just an obsolete database, but also making it more and more difficult for anyone, especially newcomers, to find the Benchmark Quarter. (Hint: it's at the far end of the Old City, past the Armenian pottery sellers; if you reach the camel bazaar you've gone too far.) It's their business decision, and he has the right to do so, but I think it's too bad. ArtMan It is sad isn't it? ArtMan, you nailed this exactly. Groundspeak is not only not updating anything but they are making everything more difficult to find. The question is WHY? It seems like keeping Benchmarking would only help the popularity of Geocaching. It draws me here to make Groundspeak clicks. More clicks have to translate to more revenue for them. Look at all the free advertising Benchmarking got them with a front page Wall Street Journal article. It's one thing to not update the database. Doing that would not be easy or cheap (but I bet they could get some free volunteers). However, hiding access to the benchmark logging pages just does not make sense. I am sure they didn't save any money by hiding the page. Very odd... Just like us Benchmark hunters I guess.
  20. I have the same problem. I hope it is just temporary. I love this program.
  21. I have spoken to Erica and she is legitimate. She has spoken to other members as well. It sure is great to hear of some outside interest in our geeky, obscure hobby.
  22. And... This being the day that it is, I suppose it is possible that this is all a ruse set up by one of you mischievous minded members. If so, You Got Me!
  23. By the way Erica, If you would like to share the details of the benchmark that you found, especially a photo, I guarantee you that you will have a lot of feedback in a very short amount of time from the helpful members here.
  24. Hi Erica, It is amazing to hear of someone with your credentials being interested in our little hobby. Most of us here toil away in near obscurity doing something that gets very little outside notice. Even geocaching.com has reduced its interest and resources in the benchmarking portion of the website. Some benchmark hunters are casual hunters who do it as an aside while they are performing their normal geocaching activities. There is also a small community here whose main activity is benchmark hunting. They are more interested in finding benchmarks than caches. Some are obsessed and spend extensive time and resources on a pursuit that has no external reward. Some of us plan vacations exclusively around benchmark hunting. There are some very talented folks involved in benchmark recovery. They have written software programs and apps and host web sites specifically for benchmark hunters. I know that some folks would be more than happy to expound upon this hobby to anyone who will listen (and even to some people who don't really care to listen ) Best regards, One member of the TillaMurphs
  25. Hi Ron, I will give you my ideas on this. They may or may not be right. I am sure others will be along with more educated information. I would assume that in this case the tangent line would run along the north-south section of the road that is highway north of the mark's general location. I would start measuring the 0.1 mile measurement at the point where the road south starts to curve away from that straight north-south section. This would seem to put the mark approximately in line with the east-west line separating 2 fields north of the scaled coordinates. OR.... Maybe the tangent line runs along the straight section of the SE-NW run of highway and the point to start measuring from is where the road starts to break right and northward from that straight NW-SE section of road. Good luck, Let us know what you find.
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