scolba

hum...so not looking much like a bench mark, eh? lol...its probably just a bolt of some sort to hold down the slab so it doesn't wash away when the water gets higher. Yeah, thats a really cool area in IL. Sometimes I forget that there is more in IL than the endless corn and bean fields around me. thanks for the help guys!

No railroad bed nearby....this is inside of a state park. Some other images of the nearby area to give you a better idea of what the rest of the trail is like. not totally relevant, but its fun to share, too.

ah, good deal. thanks! so let me ask you guys this question then....since i don't have much benchmarking experience yet, and i def haven't found any rivet type bench marks before, would you guys say this rivet is consistent with how they generally look, or is this probably some other type of mark?

Hey guys, been a good long while since I posted here. The wife and I were hiking today at Matthiessen State Park near Oglesby, IL and I saw this rivet like thing in some man made structure. It was on the floor of the bluffs we were walking within along the creek bed. I couldn't find anything for it in the DB, and was hoping maybe you guys knew what it might be? thanks, as usual!! Scott

its no longer active. the old tracks have been inactive for quite some time, and this is actually part of a local trail system that has a walking path under the bridge. So its all good! I'm a little leary of some of the ones on rails too... the other markers were in between a road and a school...i didn't see any tracks nearby, but im not from there area, so i could have missed them.....so are you guys pretty sure thats what they are for?

hmmm...well i seem to be good at finding non benchmark marks, then.... lol....oh well. here are the pics of my REAL first find!!!! WOOOT!!! EF1101

Hi Guys! I was visiting my p's in Alabama this past weekend and i found 3 marks!! only one for sure, and thats the one i'm having troubles getting a picture of. It was on a railroad bridge over the tennessee river. i was totally stoked!! but that was my 3rd find ever....the first two i'm having trouble identifying, and was hoping you guys could help. I found them by accident in Town Creek, AL, but can't find them in the database. I guess they could be something else, other than a Benchmark.....i just don't know what. There are two of them and were about 100 feet apart. Here are the pics: PC128 PT127 Sadly I didn't have my GPS with me at the time, so i don't have coordinates, but the first one is approximately 250' from the highway 101/highway 20 intersection in Town Creek, AL. What do you guys think? Thanks as always, and I'll post the railroad bridge pic shortly! I think its neat! Scott

Thanks a lot for all the welcomes! Its nice to be on a forum where people are so friendly! Hi John! Yeah, the snow probably won't stop me from searching, all the benchmarks will have to be on the side of a snowmobile trail, though! Thats about the only thing I do during the winter! I dunno Patty, Astro has a point...it would be good story! How fun would it be if I find a benchmark on my own ahead of time, and then go hide the marriage license there or something! lol...then SHE has to go find it before we can get married!! Yeah, your right...probably not too smart. LOL

Ya know..i dont' think i am getting discouraged. I mean, i was yesterday, but talking to you guys on here has really gotten me pumped to go back out there! LOL..actually its kind of sad....quick story: Tonight we were on the way to meet with the lady who is making our wedding cake. She lives in the triving metropolis of Carlock, IL (about 500 people), and I spied along the side of the road what i thought was a witness post!! I was like, OOH OOH OOH!!! We HAVE to stop there on the way home!! (we were already late getting there...) So we stop there on the way back...i hop out and get closer, but it turns out to be a gas pipeline purge point. DOH! My mom and fiance were both laughing at me the whole time.....lol....oh well. But i think i've been hit by the bug. I'm also having some trouble watching the road as i drive along some backroads now...lol. I think i need a 12 step program or something. So really all i can say is, thanks a lot guys! you have given me a new obsession until the snow shows up!

oooooooh yeah...now THAT sure would explain the coincidence!!! A multi-purpose point! lol...

The map was from the Garmin US Topo - East. The device is an eTrex Legend. I don't think it was a waypoint feature, because the only ones i had loaded in there at that time were in McLean, IL and Atlanta, IL, about 15-20 mi W and WNW of there. That and this was the first time i had ever been to that location with my GPSr ever. Its deffinately part of the map...i can go to http://www.garmin.com/cartography and demo that map, zoom into that area, and there is a 'dot' at that exact spot labled "725"....presumably the elevation Maybe i'll add waypoints for this weekend for some other dot's that are nearby and see what is at those locations. maybe that could shed some more light on the reason for it being on the map....think thats worth a shot?

negative....no trails in the area, unless the road itself is a trail....just fileds and fields and fields, and fields and a lake. lol Shoot, I wish there were established 4x4 trails in the area. I used to be a big time offroader...but had to travel 2 hours east of here to wheel because that was the closest legal park. but thats a different topic all together!

yeah, we are going to look for one tomorrow that has been found already, though only about a mile from LC1691. I have also arranged to borrow my friends metal detector, so we'll find 'er! After looking at the pics you linked, mloser, i am starting to think the cement isn't of the same construction. what i found was thinner yet taller. I guess they come in all shapes and sizes, so its still possible.

holy schnikies! im gonna have to either learn about this stuff for another 6 months, or re-read that about 50 times, or both!! thats way over my head!! but cool none the less that there is a problem there! History like this is really cool.

So the "X" on the GPSr where the marker was is kind of an anomoly then? not something that is typical?

This one has me the most excited, especially after your description! The reason I say that, is because there isn't a road for about 2 miles of there that has a curb. Its all oil/gravel roads, and asphalt with gravel shoulders So that gives me hope!! Wishful thinking??? Yes, probably....lol. Ill get out there with some tools (and premission i hope!) next week and at least get closure on that object! One of the problems I have with this benchmark's description is the poles. The poles that are there are way newer than 1986. Typically, do they place now poles in the same location as the old ones??? The witness post was right at the footing for the guy wire. Is there some kind of 'rule of thumb' as to maximum/minimum distance a witness post can be from the actual bm?? Thanks for helpin out a newb, guys! I appreciate it!

That gets my vote! So I guess my last question regarding it, is are township corners typically marked like that on Topo maps? If not, any idea why this one is marked? Maybe just because there is the stone monument there, the person/team who made the topo map for that area decided to mark it?? Ok, thats 3 questions....but then we can put this one to bed!!!

The post is on private property, so I am going to go knock on the door first to see if I can mess around with it, and maybe try to extract it. Deffinately for my own curiosity! If I do find that the disk is there, what should I do from that point? The marker hasn't been recovered by the NGS since 1986. Should I report it as destroyed and leave it there? Pick it up and mail to them? lol...probably not that one.... we're gonna go out again on monday to see if we can find some more. Hopfully we'll get a find and won't be bummed anymore! lol Thanks guys! (and gals )

The post was on the north end of the road, and I would deffinately say that it was in line with the boundry there. It was just as you entered the gentle curve from the east, rather than as far in as the point illustrated. Thanks a lot for all the help everybody!! I really appreciate it!

went out for my first benchmarks tonight...looked for 4, came up 0-4. We MAY have found one (LC0374), but im not going to claim it as a find unless i can get it confirmed. It was a cement column on its side with some angle iron coming out of the bottom. It looks like it should have stuck in the ground with the angle. It was really close to the coordinates and almost spot on to the description.....so heres a pic. have you guys ever seen a benchmark on one of these???? sorry, its kind of a crappy pic....i just couldn't get teh thing to budge! We found the witness post for another one (LC1691), but couldnt actually find the benchmark....grrr....we'll get one soon i hope!!

I tell ya...the more people I meet, the smaller the world gets. But I guess thats pretty intuitive, huh?? thanks for the good luck! you seem like a really nice group of folks 'round these parts.

nope...just the one side. I made sure to look all around it, and i walked around a bit to see if it was marking a historical area or something. There are a lot of old school cornerstones in the country here, but didn't find squat. I was confused too because it looks old, but not too worn....its not real far from a nuclear power plant...so maybe the radiation is keeping it new looking! LOL...maybe not.

I find it HUGELY interesting!! As a matter of fact, earlier today loaded up the coordinates for about 10 different benchmarks and printed out the descriptions of the locations! As soon as my fiance gets home tonight, we are headed out to look for some of them!! There's a whole SLEW of them around here that haven't been "recovered" yet! I'm excited to go!

Yup! sure did! The coordinates are N40 09.348 W88 55.066 I think Township is the leading candidate at this point. are those boundaries typically marked on Topo maps??

Heya guys, it was suggested that I ask this question in here, so here I go! (Other topic: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=135607) On the way to go fishing yesterday, I was staring at my GPSr (the little 'r' means reciever, right?), and I noticed a small 'X' on the GPSr next to the road we were on. My first thought was, hidden treasure?? Maybe its that Volvo!! lol...just kidding. Anyway, it did peak my curiosity, so on the way home we stopped to see what it was. So I snapped a pic of it and posted it in the 'Getting Started' forum. Some suggested that it was right of way marker, just labled differently. Somebody else said that it could be a marker used for surveying land using the township-range method. I got no idea, so maybe you guys can help!! Whatcha think??? Thanks a lot! Scott