Maine Usgs Bench Mark K24

[Papa-Bear-NYC]

I was in Maine last week for my wife's reunion. Her class spent 2 days in Bar Harbor before going up to Orono. In order to optimise my time when we weren't eating lobster or carousing with her classmates, I concentrated on older benchmarks which did not involve long hikes. In other words pre-50s drive ups.

 

There was one set of bench marks set by the USGS which are (mostly) in the NGS database. The "K" series. Unlike typical CGS series, these were all desiganted "K" followed by a number, as in "K 1", "K 2", "K 3", etc. (unlike the CGS which uses successive letters followed by the same number, such as "A 123", "B 123", "C 123", etc.)

 

The following were on my list, with these results:

 

"K 3" PE0268 - Rte. 3/102 intersection - FOUND

"K 9" PE0277 - Rte. 233 near Eagle Lake - FOUND

"K 12" PE0292 - Rte. 102 near Echo Lake - FOUND

"K 14" PE0305 - Rte. 102 Tremont - NOT FOUND

"K 16" PE0318 - Rte. 102 Seal Cove - NOT FOUND

"K 17" PE0321 - Rte. 102 near Long Pond - FOUND

"K 22" PE0281 - Bar Harbor Post Office - FOUND

"K 23" PE0279 - Acadia National Park road - FOUND

 

Now what was interesting, is that there was another "K" series disk that I found which was not in the NGS database. It was "K 24", on top of Cadillac Mountain.

 

Here's a shot of it:

(click for larger image)

It's significantly more worn than the others - probably it's the tourists!

 

So here's the question:

 

Why didn't the NGS take this one into the database with the rest of them? I'm speculating either that 1) when the USGS ran this series, the elevation for this one, being on top of the mountain, was set by triangulation or maybe photogrammetrically, rather than leveling. Or alternatively, 2) if they leveled up the old road to the top of the mountain, they could not go down by another route, so this ended up at the end of a line, rather than being part of a closed loop.

 

Any other ideas?

 

DaveD are there any old documents which would explain this, either in the USGS files or the NGS files?

 

Of course there are lots more "holes" in the series, so there are perhaps another buch of these old "K"series USGS marks are off in the woods somewhere waiting to be discoverd - by us! Anyone ever see a USGS B.M. near any hiking trails or mountain tops in the area?

Edited June 8, 2006 by Papa-Bear-NYC

[+Zhanna]

Sorry to say I don't have the answer to your questions (and I did wonder the same thing myself when I found this mark last year). I do, however, have the relevant USGS datasheets on my site, if you'd like to take a look at them:

 

Third-Order Leveling, Bar Harbor Quad (1977)

 

This should help fill in some of the "holes" in the series.

 

Some of the others in the series can be found here:

 

Third-Order Leveling, Mount Desert Quad (1934)

 

but it will take some digging because that set doesn't have a handy index.

 

~Zhanna, impatiently awaiting her upcoming trip to Maine

 

http://surveymarks.planetzhanna.com/

[Papa-Bear-NYC]

Sorry to say I don't have the answer to your questions (and I did wonder the same thing myself when I found this mark last year). I do, however, have the relevant USGS datasheets on my site, if you'd like to take a look at them:

 

Third-Order Leveling, Bar Harbor Quad (1977)

 

This should help fill in some of the "holes" in the series.

 

...

 

Thanks Zhanna

 

The first datasheet answers one question: yes, they ran a level line (line no. 4) right up the Cadillac Mountain Road (called "Summit Rd" on the datasheet). The crux of the question about inclusion by the NGS into it's network is how one line connects to another and how the whole network hangs together. If you look at the map on the first page that may be the answer. Lines 1 and 3 seem to form a loop, and line 4 just goes up the mountain. QED - maybe.

 

Have fun in Maine