GrizzFlyer

What I believe happened was that whoever was originally entering the BM's in 1947 somehow erred and entered the same coordinates for other BM's with the same designation that were 52 miles away. LA0495 and LA0166 have the same designation (1), and are listed with the exact same coords. Same thing for LA0496 and LA0165, with the designation of 2. A human mistake that hasn't been corrected all these years. I don't usually sent reports in to the NGS, but in this case an exception should be made and I'll get to it this week.

Here are a couple of pix of benchmark "area" shots that I took in January. I was kinda proud that I found them, as the coordinates were 52 miles off. Located them by description alone. Thinking that I was probably going to be the first to locate them since they were created, I was a little excited about checking these out. My excitement died down a bit when I finally get did get the chance to pursue them and discovered marking paint circling both BM's. They were old paint marks, but enough to show that somebody was here before me. BM PID's are in upper LH corner of pix. Hope these pix come out correctly, first time using this image-hosting service.

Received my coins today in snow-covered NW Ohio. Nice surprise, thank you!!

Count me in !!!

The method I use is similar to what some others are using. I download the NGS data for the county I'm interested in. Run it through BMGPX and import it into GSAK. Then export it as a Magellan POI (NOT geocache) file and save it in a temporary folder. Export it again as a .PDB folder for my Palm running Cachemate. If I want a create a paper map later, I export it again as a DeLorme .TXT file. All that exporting takes only seconds. I then sync my PDA and import the new county file and save it in the proper Cachemate category. Then transfer the POI file to my Explorist's SD card. If I exported the DeLorme file, I start up Street Atlas, import the .TXT file as a DRAW function, and then print off that area for a large area visual aid while I'm out benchmarking. There are about 20 counties that I carry in my PDA and Explorist. The PDA/Cachemate is set up by regions and the Explorist has individual county files, and it can switch from one county to another in seconds. The first time I download a county, I often go through each benchmark and read the descriptions and history while it is in GSAK and before I export. That eliminates some of those that are not recoverable. That is very time consuming, but only happens once for each county.

How about a hammer and a chisel and a nice big witness post?

Got mine yesterday. They all look great, and that copper one looks awesome!

Using a dated database program here called Alpha 5. Currently I use 13 fields for each BM found, and use drop-down selectable menus for several of the fields. The data is importable into Excel with just a couple of mouse clicks, and can be saved as a .csv file if needed. It can be indexed on multiple fields for searching.

Looks like the LE Brass are gone? Not listed in the geocoinstore, nickel only.

Placed my order this morning via the email address. Thank you!

Around these parts, there are quite a few benchmarks placed dead-center in the middle of an intersection. They are in monument boxes with a heavy lid about 8 inches square. The BM name is usually stamped on the box flange, with the actual station disk being unstamped. I've done a few of those that are on lightly travelled roads with far sight lines, but if they are in a busy area, forget it. No way do I want to cause a crash, get myself or somebody else hurt, and get my butt sued off. Like Black Dog Trackers said, there are plenty more out there, move on.

Welcome to benchmark hunting in NW Ohio. Many BM's are on private property, and most of the time you should gain permission to enter the property to hunt the benchmark. There might be some exceptions to that, but generally that is what should happen. I really have this adversion to attack dogs and property owners with shotguns, and try to avoid them at all costs. It is up to you to determine if finding that benchmark is worth finding the property owner first to gain permission. You cannot mark the BM as found since you didn't find it. Also, don't always believe your GPS when hunting BM's. If the coords are scaled, they *may* be way off. Read the station description to get an accurate location of the BM.

Put me down for a Cache-Cadian Chapter coin.

Had an opportunity to get one of each, glad I did. Very nice coins !!

Looks great !! I'll be in line for 1 each when the ordering starts.

Ran into a new type of benchmark yesterday, described as a "keel mark". A search of past threads HERE in this group revealed a good discussion on keel marks. The benchmark in question is MD0155 The above discussion and a related websearch of articles indicate that keel marks are temporary marks made with marking crayon or sometimes chalk or pencil. Since this mark was set in 1934, and was on a concrete post that is now deteriorating and coming apart, I suppose it isn't a surprise that I could not locate the keel mark yesterday. My question is two-fold: Why did they use a temporary method to establish a permanent benchmark, and how would I log my search? As a note or DNF or as destroyed? Since I was unable to locate a mark that most certainly isn't there any longer, it couldn't be a find even when I located the proper post mentioned in the description. This benchmark thing is getting interestinger and interestinger.....

In a number of BM entries from the NGS database, I see references to distance stated as rails. An example would be "9 1/2 rails east from the easternmost rail", or "3 rails west of the junction of the ABC railroad and the XYZ railroad", etc. They are almost always in reference to distances from railroad tracks or structures. Is there a standard length of a "rail"? I see old pix of guys building a railroad, with a bunch of them carrying a rail to the track bed. Looks to be about 10-20 feet long. Probably a reference to the length of a railroad rail?

Didn't realize there was any animosity between geocachers and letterboxers. They seem to get along OK around here, as far as I know. Even had one letterboxer place a container right on top of one of my caches, and I mean right smack-dab on top of it. I thought that was kind of bold, but since the world was still spinning, it wasn't any big deal. So, I altered my cache page to mention it and alert geocachers that there was also a LB at the cache site and to make sure they log the correct container.

Count me in for at least one of each.

While downloading a few new counties full of benchmarks into the GPS, I noticed that two of those BM's had coords about 50 miles SE of where the descriptions would put them. They are LA0495 and LA0496. According to the BM's description, the actual coords for LA0496 should be about N40 56.200 x W84 34.900 and for LA0495 should be about N40 56.840 x W84 34.925. Why are they so far off, or did I misread or misunderstand something?

Almost like wooden nickels are the poker chips. Cheap to buy at Sam's Club or other big box stores. Buy a pack of 1" round stick-on labels at your favorite office supply store, and its time to be artistic. Use a template made available by the label manufacturer, and create your own labels via a color inkjet printer. Create two different labels, one for each side of the chip. The clay poker chips seem to make for a much better sig item than the less-expensive plastic chips, but whatever works for you. They don't last long in caches around here, cachers like to collect them.

Got mine today in NW Ohio. Excellent coin, nice job!

Very very nice! Save a few for me too.

While reading through some benchmark descriptions (I'm not much of a BM hunter, but I may just change that), I ran across BM MC1382. Read the entry for 1984. Usually these descriptions and recoveries are somewhat dry, to say the least. This one was different.

I'm on the list above twice, so I'll take the larger of the two requests, total of 4 coins. Thanks!