History In The Making

[+Davispak]

I consider myself a casual benchmark hunter. I have found several and have even recovered one that had not been found since the 70's. I do have a question for you more seasoned (experienced) hunters. I have noticed that in looking on this site and in my travels that I haven't seen any NEW benchmarks. Just like anything else I know these things are lost or destroyed. I am not sure but I haven't seen any that are newer than 1972. Why is that? Have they stopped placing benchmarks? Has GPS supplanted the need for these markers? Or am I just not looking in the right place.

I am curious about the history of them and I figure one of you intrepid adventurers would have the answer to this question. Thanks in advance.

[Papa-Bear-NYC]

I consider myself a casual benchmark hunter. I have found several and have even recovered one that had not been found since the 70's. I do have a question for you more seasoned (experienced) hunters. I have noticed that in looking on this site and in my travels that I haven't seen any NEW benchmarks. Just like anything else I know these things are lost or destroyed. I am not sure but I haven't seen any that are newer than 1972. Why is that? Have they stopped placing benchmarks? Has GPS supplanted the need for these markers? Or am I just not looking in the right place.

I am curious about the history of them and I figure one of you intrepid adventurers would have the answer to this question. Thanks in advance.

 

Here's a couple:

 

KU1445 Reset is near old mark (from Seventhings log).

 

KU1010 Reset is near old mark's location (from my log).

[andylphoto]

Here's one that's kind of new...

 

 

It isn't in the database yet, but I posted the photos of this reset in the log for the original which will be destroyed by construction over the summer. Original mark: RK0460.

[+Kewaneh & Shark]

Benchmarks are still being placed, they are however, they are not set as often. The national agencies that used to actively set the marks don't get out as much as they used to. Usually the work falls to local agencies, sometimes under the direction of the national agencies. It could be in your area that 1972 was the last time that the area was actively worked. In my area, the marks are clustered with dates in the early to mid 40's, and again in the late 60's, but there are marks with dates scattered in between too.

 

The advent of GPS has not made benchmarks any less important. Benchmarks are part of what defines GPS - at least the help to define the shape of the Earth and the Datum that GPS uses. One thing that GPS has done to benchmarks is made it possible for the marks to be spaced a bit farther apart. With that, farther spacing equals fewer benchmarks.

 

- Kewaneh

[+PFF]

Hi, Davispak:

 

There are a couple of recent ones in your home area of Winston-Salem. Pick some centralized coordinates and do a interactive map radial search on the NGS data base.

 

New marks typically carry a designation different from the normal FYxxxx PID's. For instance, the PID might begin with the letters ai, ah, dh, etc.

 

Pssst. Since you are in North Carolina, I'll let you in on a little secret. The staff at NCGS often sets marks and never quite gets around to logging them in the NGS data base. For example, using the NGS database, look at DH9087 (QUARTER), in northern Durham County. If you read the data sheet very carefully, you'll notice that 14 years elapsed between setting the mark and putting it in the NGS system. (Compare the monumenting date with the last line of the description.) I could mention others, such as LIGHTENING on the Blue Ridge Parkway (near station THUNDER), plus numerous resets.

 

NCGS is a talented, dedicated, but very small organization. The process of adding descriptions gets "bumped" by other projects. New disks are entered much faster when done by a third-party vendor. You will see some of these as you sift through the NGS data base. By the way, the third-party disks often are accompanied by photos. Look for a sentence about mid-way down the page that says "Photographs are available for this station".

 

Let me know if you need assistance pulling some samples from NGS records. I'll be glad to give you a hand. Since I'm not far away, perhaps we could team up on a search, sometime!

 

Best regards,

Paul (PFF)

Cary NC

[+Black Dog Trackers]

Davispak -

 

A subset of all benchmarks is of course the ones in the NGS database. I used files downloaded last year by BuckBrooke and made a graph of monumentation date.

 

I put the graph plus a couple magnifications of the graph on a free website here.

 

The geocaching benchmark site is made from a copy of the NGS database that Groundspeak acquired from the NGS in 2000. It is not being updated. There are few if any marks dated 2000 in it, and none later of course.

[+PFF]

Here is an interesting comment from one of the folks who is setting new marks in North Carolina. James Jeffreys is a surveyor with NCDOT. As he travels around the state, he manages to work in time for benchmark hunting when he stops for lunch, or as an alternative to sitting in a motel room in the evening. (He has logged several hundred marks on GEOCACHING.com.)

 

In a recent E-mail, he wrote:

 

I get disappointed when any of the stations that I set get destroyed, and it's a lot easier for

me to set points today that it was even 10 years ago, and those points aren't expected to last like the

USCGS, NGS, and NCGS stations are. I had a very small part in placing two new NCGS stations at the

CPCC campus in Charlotte, and I already have an attachment to them. ( MCDOWELL & WAGNER, they

don't have PIDs yet. )

 

As Black Dog Trackers pointed out, new marks will not appear on GEOCACHING.com. However, many can be found on the NGS website. And judging from what James wrote, more are coming along in the future, as they are processed through the system.

 

-Paul-

[+GEO*Trailblazer 1]

The Lewis and Clark Benchmarks are being set at this time.

 

Be a part of the history.

 

History in the making.

[+Davispak]

That is excellent news. I am glad that these "pieces of history" are being continued. Yes Pff..we may have to get together so you can teach me the ways of the Benchmark. The kids will be out of school soon so we will be beginning our summer trek of caches and benchmarks.

[+GEO*Trailblazer 1]

That is excellent news. I am glad that these "pieces of history" are being continued. Yes Pff..we may have to get together so you can teach me the ways of the Benchmark. The kids will be out of school soon so we will be beginning our summer trek of caches and benchmarks.

 

September(22) 23-24 Lewis and Clark return from their Journey to St. Louis.

There is an event planned through Geocaching and The NGS has their event planned at the same time.

 

I am doing it on the Sept. 23 because that is the date that is in the journals of the day of return at St. Louis.

 

We are fixing to get the Latest signature disc in Astoria the end of the trail then return to home and on to St. Louis for the Event.

 

So our year is busy and full of History.

 

If you look in this forum I have posted the link in the Lewis and Clark discussion.

 

Hope to see you all there.

[andylphoto]

Found another 2006 Reset mark. This one (the original) is in the same construction zone as the one I posted above, and likely to be destroyed this summer.

 

Reset for RK0464

 

[andylphoto]

I posted two photos above, but I have now found two additional benchmarks that will be destroyed by construction this summer. M-DOT is resurfacing US-41 along this stretch, and at the same time cutting some rock outcroppings further back from the edge of the highway for safety reasons. Some of these rock outcroppings are home to the following marks:

 

Reset marks have been monumented for the following:

RK0457 Designation: N 329

RK0458 Designation: L 329

 

Reset marks pictured already above:

RK0460 Designation: K 329

RK0464 Designation: F 329

 

I will also be watching:

RK0459 (Designation M 329)

RK0463 (Designation H 329)

Both are located within the same construction zone, but reset marks have not apparently been set, and these two marks may survive.