SamWibatt Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 Good day, I recently noticed this small monument near my workplace. It consists of a memorial plaque dedicating Stilwell Field in Fort Douglas, Salt Lake City, Utah, and a stone block underneath with the label U.S. MERIDIAN AND LATITUDE MARK on one side and coordinates in degrees, minutes, and seconds on the other. In a discussion on the Geocaching.com benchmark boards, user Bill93 tracked down a similar stone in an article by Bill Wilson (now ColoBill on the forums). ColoBill's article was about a marker placed by the U.S. Army surveying expedition led by Lt. George Wheeler. In the discussion ColoBill presented coordinates for other Wheeler markers, including this one. It turned out that this one is Wheeler's Camp Douglas astronomical monument, placed in 1873. Click thumbnail for larger image. As far as people have been able to tell on the Geocaching discussion board, the monument is in its original position, though it has had the memorial plaque affixed to its top. It's an interesting little monument, and I'd like to enter a waymark for it. I'm posting to ask which category it belongs in; the closest match I've found is Recovered US Benchmarks, though it doesn't exactly seem to be that. There is no benchmark disk, and it predates the U.S. Geological Survey. Would it be OK to enter this in the Recovered US Benchmarks category, or should I use a different one? Thanks, Sam Link to comment
SamWibatt Posted July 27, 2006 Author Share Posted July 27, 2006 I've contacted the Recovered Benchmarks group leader and he says it's unsuitable, so I withdraw the question. Many thanks, Sam Link to comment
+8Nuts MotherGoose Posted August 2, 2006 Share Posted August 2, 2006 Check to see if it fits in Waymarks for the National Register of Historic Places. Perhaps the fort is on the list, and if the survey marker is on the fort grounds, use that coord to list the fort as a Waymark for the NRHP. Then tell about the survey marker. Other survey marker hunters will come to the fort to see the marker. Link to comment
+Black Dog Trackers Posted August 2, 2006 Share Posted August 2, 2006 SamWibatt - I'm preparing to make a new category for such things as the Wheeler monuments. Link to comment
Jeremy Posted August 19, 2006 Share Posted August 19, 2006 SamWibatt - I'm preparing to make a new category for such things as the Wheeler monuments. Cool! That's a super cool find. It would be great to have a home on Waymarking.com for it. Primitive Surveying Locations? Whatever it is will be interesting to see. Link to comment
+BruceS Posted August 19, 2006 Share Posted August 19, 2006 (edited) SamWibatt - I'm preparing to make a new category for such things as the Wheeler monuments. Cool! That's a super cool find. It would be great to have a home on Waymarking.com for it. Primitive Surveying Locations? Whatever it is will be interesting to see. The category is available now U.S. Historic Survey Stones and Monuments Edited August 19, 2006 by BruceS Link to comment
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