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High Accuracy Geodetic Control Mark


Neo_Geo

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I was just on the hunt for a virtual cache when I went by one of the Dept. of Agriculture buildings near the Washington Monument. There was a marble marker about one square foot and about two feet high with the inscription "High Accuracy Geodetic Control Mark". It has a date of 2005 on it, so I'm guessing it's pretty new.

 

It is located at N38° 53.289' W77° 01.903'

 

It does not appear in the database. Anybody know anything about it? Would it be "The Mother of all Benchmarks"??? :laughing:

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Neo_Geo,

 

The Geocaching database is years out of date. I did a radius search on the NGS site for marks near the coordinates you gave (translated into decimal degrees as 38.8881, -77.03172), but didn't turn up anything that seems to fit.

 

As you've no doubt read on the FAQ page, there are approximately a gazillion benchmarks out there that are not in this database.

 

Don't suppose you have a photo of this interesting sounding mark?

 

-ArtMan-

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Neo_Geo the mark you found was recently set by the U.S. Forest Service in cooperation with NGS in dedication of the centennial of the Forest Service. It is one of approximately 15 marks set by USFS from Puerto Rico to Alaska at various national forest offices as part of the commemoration effort. The GPS observations have been performed by USFS and are currently be processed for submission to NGS for inclusion in the National Spatial Reference System. The mark was officially dedicated by the Secretary of Agriculture, Director of the Forest Service and Director of the National Geodetic Survey on July 1, 2005.

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Neo_Geo the mark you found was recently set by the U.S. Forest Service in cooperation with NGS in dedication of the centennial of the Forest Service.  It is one of approximately 15 marks set by USFS from Puerto Rico to Alaska at various national forest offices as part of the commemoration effort.  The GPS observations have been performed by USFS and are currently be processed for submission to NGS for inclusion in the National Spatial Reference System.  The mark was officially dedicated by the Secretary of Agriculture, Director of the Forest Service and Director of the National Geodetic Survey on July 1, 2005.

Thanks for the info! Are the coordinates and elevations of these markers available to the public, or will they be? Who would I go to to get that information?

Edited by Neo_Geo
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Neo Geo,

 

For information on the Mother of all Bench Marks, Read here:

 

http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/PUBS_LIB/NAVD88/navd88report.htm

 

In that you will find information about a Bench Mark located in Quebec at Father Point/Rimowski which is considered the primary Bench mark for the NAVD 88 Vertical Datum.

 

Triangulation Stations do not currently have a Mother of all stations in the NAD 83 Datum, however, there was a mother of all triangulation during the NAD 27 called Meades Ranch Reset: http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/ds_mark.prl?PidBox=KG0640

 

That will give you a little background on some stations which are and were considered the the reference standards for their respective Datum

 

The NAD 83 Datum is an Earth centered Datum and does not use a Mother Station. The old NGVD 29 Vertical Datum did not use a single Mother station either, instead that Datum used 26 stations as their "mother"...

 

Worth learning about... Enjoy!

 

Rob

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Neo_Geo the mark you found was recently set by the U.S. Forest Service in cooperation with NGS in dedication of the centennial of the Forest Service.  It is one of approximately 15 marks set by USFS from Puerto Rico to Alaska at various national forest offices as part of the commemoration effort.  The GPS observations have been performed by USFS and are currently be processed for submission to NGS for inclusion in the National Spatial Reference System.  The mark was officially dedicated by the Secretary of Agriculture, Director of the Forest Service and Director of the National Geodetic Survey on July 1, 2005.

Thanks for the info! Are the coordinates and elevations of these markers available to the public, or will they be? Who would I go to to get that information?

It is not yet available, but eventually it will be. And you will be able to get the info the same way you get info on any other mark in our database.

 

-Casey-

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W/ direction from Casey, I spoke to the folks at the Forest Service. They plan to have 20+ markers around the country, with some being set in the ground into the beginning of next year. I will be getting basic information on some of them, and a map of the US, that I will post on my website.

 

As they are still in the midst of the project, as well as are pulling together the material for NGS to qualify for the database for PIDs, I'll get the basics now and then more towards the end of the year.

Edited by BuckBrooke
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