The Willamette Stone

[Papa-Bear-NYC]

Last weekend my wife and I visted our daughter in Portland Oregon. Although in the past I had refrained from any hard core benchmarking on visits there, my daughter knew of my interest and took us the Willamette Stone State Park to see the monument which was the initial point for land surveys in Washington and Oregon, originally surveyed in 1851. In the NGS database it is PID RD3152.

 

I know several regulars on this forum have logged it as well as a great number of Geocachers (there is a cache nearby).

 

According to the signage at the site the original stone was vandalized in the 1980s and it was replaced by a stainless steel disk. Unfortunately there is no mention whatsoever of this replacement on the NGS datasheet, nor is there a reset with a new PID. So I had to log it on GC as DESTROYED (as had the few other benchmarkers who had logged it). If I log it with the NGS it will be a NOT FOUND, since in theory there may be some remnant of the original monument underground. Not surprisingly, most visitors had logged it as FOUND. I counted 7 DESTROYEDs and 62 FOUNDs.

 

The disk is mounted on a block of granite and I would love to believe it is the remnant of the original granite stone, but without documentation, there is no geodetic control, so there is no station. A few questions:

 

1) From the look of the disk, is this a standard land survey mark or just an "ornamental" disk?

 

(click for full size)

 

2) If the state replaced the old station with this disk, would there be state records giving control information?

 

3) If the answer to the above is yes, is there anyway to get this to the NGS to update the datasheet?

 

4) Anyone know any details of this monument as relates to the preservartion of geodetic control?

 

Control or no control, it's a neat place to visit and well worth your while if you are in the area.

[+jwahl]

There is extensive documentation for the point as well as it's more recent history of destruction and resets in a book called "Initial Points of the Rectangular Survey System", by C. Albert White. This book may still be available from the Professional Land Surveyors of Colorado (PLSC) society.

 

That reference indicates that the stainless steel monument set in 1988 was placed in a drill hole in the remains of the stone which has been set in 1885 by the county surveyor to perpetuate the position and then locally referred to as 'the willamette stone". There is some confusion in that account because it states that the stone was "quarried grey limestone" and not granite. It has been vandalized a number of times.

 

I would bet that there may be articles in the local land surveyors society PLSO newsletters about the 1988 work.

 

There are also a number of pictures of both the 1988 and its predecessor brass tablet which had been set in the recently broken off 1885 stone in 1967.

 

- jerry wahl

 

PS. It would appear to me that the C&GS observations predate both the more recent cap remonumentations, but is on the same stone which is the one set in 1885. The elevation would differ since it has been broken off, and reformed several times to accomodate the current stainless steel cap, but I would expect the station to be substantially intact for horizontal control purposes.

 

- jl

 

The disk is mounted on a block of granite and I would love to believe it is the remnant of the original granite stone, but without documentation, there is no geodetic control, so there is no station. A few questions:

 

1) From the look of the disk, is this a standard land survey mark or just an "ornamental" disk?

 

(click for full size)

 

2) If the state replaced the old station with this disk, would there be state records giving control information?

 

3) If the answer to the above is yes, is there anyway to get this to the NGS to update the datasheet?

 

4) Anyone know any details of this monument as relates to the preservartion of geodetic control?

 

Control or no control, it's a neat place to visit and well worth your while if you are in the area.

Edited November 2, 2006 by jwahl

[+Black Dog Trackers]

This PID has been discussed a lot in a previous topic, starting aroundhere. We're currently waiting on a response from Deb on it.

[ArtMan]

Mention of land surveyors' professional organizations in this thread got me curious about such a group in my area. I found a useful directory, the Land Surveyor Reference Page, which includes a listing of "Professional Organizations" as well as other potentially useful resources.

 

-ArtMan-

[Papa-Bear-NYC]

This PID has been discussed a lot in a previous topic, starting aroundhere. We're currently waiting on a response from Deb on it.

Thanks BDT. I read that thread just now and it contains answers to my questions. No need to rehash it here.

 

It's nice to have old threads (or not so old threads) around as a resource.