Jump to content

VagabondsWV

Members
  • Posts

    24
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by VagabondsWV

  1. I continue to hunt “benchmarks” at every opportunity while traveling & especially new areas, and occasionally on my home turf. Am way behind on logging them & quite sure some will never be logged. To me it’s a nice hobby that has taken me to some unique and unusual places in the last 15/years.
  2. My wife says "you remember where every benchmark you ever found is but.........can't remember what I said an hour ago!" I'm very guilty.......on both counts
  3. Excellent replies Bill93 & 2Oldfarts.......... My 2 cents......there's just something about benchmark hunting I myself enjoy, but never ever expect a non-hunter to understand
  4. Heck, let me be the first to say I like ALL the maps. All are interesting and informative. While for me, darkening the colors of the counties is fun, the thing I enjoy most is getting a county out of the white zone. When travelling I always try to hit one if possible. Onec again,thanks for ALL the maps
  5. I was pleased to see my uploads on the maps this past cycle (3 new counties in Florida – Collier, Desoto, & Manatee and 1 in South Carolina – Chester ) plus pushed 2 more WV counties to the Red. The most pleasing, however, is your continued work with the maps, county & data stats that we all love to see. As others have said your work is most appreciated.
  6. There is a very good and most interesting article in this months American Surveyor magazine about Mr. Bilby and his tower and career on "the survey". Here is the online link: http://www.amerisurv.com/PDF/TheAmericanSurveyor_Crattie-BilbyTowers_Vol8No4.pdf An extraordinary man.
  7. A much overdue thanks from VagabondsWV. I too look forward each month to the maps & statistics and appreciate the time involved to track “our work”. A couple of months ago I made a day trip to the southern part of the state to pick up 2 counties that put little old WV in the coloring book at 100% with all 55 having at least one recovery. That same month Kanawha was the first county to go red. That to me was 2 great milestones. This month saw the 2nd county (Lincoln) turn red which I was anxious to see. Keep up the good work & again many thanks from an appreciative (spoiled) benchmark hunter.
  8. My GC log was: I was kinder on the NGS report. :X So, my quandary is what to do with this one? I can find photos of the building. But there is a parking lot at the described location. I've tried e-mailing the city of Williamson, but have not received any response. GY0090 Sure, I could log a DNF with NGS, but I'd feel dumb if they changed the street names, and the city hall is a few bloks away... from this website www.williamsonwestvirginia.us/Personal%20Web%20Page.htm I found this bit of info.......... "The first fire station was located in the building housing the Dollar General store on second Avenue today. The JCPenney Store has previously occupied the same location. The original City Hall was located on second Avenue and the fire station and City Hall were combined in 1915 at the corner on Third Avenue and Harvey Street. The present fire station was built in 1990. City Hall presently occupies the former N and W Passenger Station on East Fourth Avenue" Seems the building holding the benchmark has been demolished and yep, City Hall is indeed a few blocks away
  9. I finally found my backup CD of 2005 photos, and no sorry, I do not have a better photo of the station. Enlarging the original photo I can add this tho. The disk is indeed not stamped – no user markings whatsoever (shadow not a problem on the original). The Lat/Long as recorded by my handheld is 38-21.232 / 81-37.583 State Plane NAD27 UTM 17 E445254, N4245052. I did not measure the distance between the station and RM#2 however the setting/description looked accurate. RM#1 had been covered over by a cement capping by a previous landowner. The Azimuth mark is destroyed as the old sidewalk was completely removed along with everything else in the block – new building, sidewalk, streetscaping changed everything. I had forgotten about the Magnetic station in Parkersburg until Wister6813 posted. Yes it is the exact same style marker. Interesting that the Charleston disk is described as a “Bronze Disk” while the Parkersburg Station is described as a “ U.S.C. and G.S. Standard Magnetic –Station Disk”. Also while JX1725 states it is stamped 1924 no such stamping. is evident in any of the photos that various people have taken of it, it also is clean just like HX3058. Here is anopther interesting Magnetic Disk, at least to me. Maybe just a surveyor adding his artistic touch with the double triangle? http://img.geocaching.com/benchmark/lg/46c...62867fe7bab.jpg Credit of photo goes to dmanuel -- my photo was not as sharp. It is HY008 a Magnetic Station in Point Pleasant, WV
  10. Not sure if this qualifies under A, K or neither............... It is HX3058 CHARLESTON MAGNETIC station monumented 1944
  11. I don't know if you are interested in viewing more road cut installed benchmarks but if so the 334 series along I-68 in WV are abundant. Of the several I have found are JW1756, JW1761, JW1763, JW1764. Multiple photos of each on my logs. VagabondsWV (.5)
  12. I got one this weekend also. This one was at Marlinton, WV on the Greenbrier River. Anytime I find one I take a photo.....occasionaly they are in the system but most times not, at least the ones I have found.
  13. Thanks for the continued (and fast) updates on the maps & stats. Now that I have started posting to NGS I enjoy watching the counties 'burst in to color' in my region. I added 2 in February & bumped one county up a color.
  14. In the category of unusual finds I had one on my last outing. While attempting to locate a buried BM (which BTW I did not find) with a metal detector I got a hit that turned out to be a GPSr unit (a Delorme Earthmate). It was buried about 3" below ground and apparently had been there quite some time as the grass was thick in the area. I thought, while looking for something using a GPSr I actually find a GPSr, that is just beyond unusual. Now if I could just find that benchmark.......... I am wondering what is the most unusal items found (or seen) at benchmark sites that others have experienced. VagabonsWV
  15. Thought this one fits in nicely with the theme of the settings. This stone monument is 15 feet tall and has a tablet marking the high water mark set in 1884 in Gallipolis, OH. The BM is the stamped elevation on an arrow on the tablet. HY0138
  16. Occassionally a closeup shot of a disk is kinda artsy.....these are a couple of my favorites HX2557 HX2223 HY0608 HX2720
  17. frex3wv & CallawayMT, I'm still thinking this is a boundary marker for the old lock property. Purely circumstantial at this point but consider. To me "behind the church" means just that or 'on the river bank'. Old Lock #9 was at this location (you can see the remains on the North side of the river....googleMAP-satellite , google-earth etc,) Also, years ago US35 was on the North side of Kanawha River where State Rt. 62 is today and the highway on the South side was State Rt. 17 not a US highway so there would be no reason for a US marker to be there. I did not find the subject BM HX2593 during my visit last fall so I will be making a return trip at some point, probably summer to try that one again (still wondering why prev. finder did not photograph), so I will nose around and look for this marker as well. In fact HX2288 which is a disk actually mounted on the lock structure on the North bank is on my summertime list to attempt. I will most likely search from the river side using a kayak. When you can mix fishing and benchmarking it just doesn't get any better.......... http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=HX2288 VagabondsWV (.5)
  18. My quess it is a property marker from the days when there was a lock at this location (pre 1930's) would have been Lock 9 in the Kanawha River series.
  19. Yep count me as one of the less sane persons. It was 8 degrees & I headed out before daybreak for a hillclimb. HX3039
  20. There's also the occasional rifle shot JX1039
  21. frex3wv, I do exterior boundaries for Plum Creek Timber Company in this area and I can tell you for a fact that the foresters would not have any need for bench marks or tri-stations; their main concern is where is our boundary and so, where are the cadastral and subdivision corners located. They are looking to get as close to their boundary as possible and get as many trees as they can within their logging plan. They would do their best to protect any survey marks if you do inform them of any within their logging boundaries and show them where they are located; you may have to explain to them what it is that you are showing them. CallawayMT I agree with CallawayMT, the timber folks are lookng for the property line(most of the time anyways, they do tend to stray a bit at times, tho). I don't think there is too much concern generally speaking in the course of the timber cutting phase for damage to our local marks. The most likely scenario of possible disturbance would be a log storage/staging area where there is a great deal more surface disturbance with dozers, loaders, etc. If there is a particular station in danger, most of the crews would protect it if notified I would think. Now as far as nuisance that is another thing, ie., would they shove brush & dirt, say along a logging road, up against a bank or over a boulder where a BM is placed, you bet. A nusiance to recover yes but mostly no harm done. But then again this is no worse than gas companies, railroads, and state road crews just to name a few doing their thing either. My 2 cents. VagabondsWV
  22. I thought I remembered a topic where the subject of "whistle posts" came up, well I found a BM today that references one so I thought I would add to the post. The referenced post called for a concrete one but it has since been replaced with a metal one. The PID is HX2307 Hope this post works, my first time making a forum post after a couple years of just "lurking" & don't know what I am doing
×
×
  • Create New...