Bureau of Public Roads Disc

[+GPS Men]

I've found this disc imbeded in the ground on a mountain side while looking for a GeoCache. It's labeled US. Bureau of Public Roads, and the number 38440.01. with the elevation 5031 ft. I've taken a photo of the disc and have the lat and long.

 

Does anyone know where this can be logged?

Edited November 9, 2006 by GPS Men

[+BuckBrooke]

GPS Men, I have a few comments/questions which should help your search. Please bear with the comments, since I don't know what you have done online so far.

 

1) Have you searched those coordinates on the advanced benchmark search at Geocaching? If you find/found it there, it's easy to log. If not, continue below.

 

2) The FAQ Question #2 says in much more detail the following: There are millions of disks out there, most of which can't be logged in any way, many of which have been forgotten by whomever put them down. Especially a U.S. Bureau of Public Roads disk, which is really old.

 

3) You can "log" the mark by creating a waymark at the Waymarking category Recovered US Benchmarks. The FAQ tells you more.

Edited November 10, 2006 by BuckBrooke

[kayakbird]

GPS Men, I have a few comments/questions which should help your search. Please bear with the comments, since I don't know what you have done online so far.

 

 

All, Did a quick search and found this short thread from long ago, but was/am hoping for a bit more information for the Department of Commerce, Bureau of Public Roads undated mark (QX0089) that I found on the Gallatin National Forest Service on Saturday. Sunday I found another NONPID one in Yellowstone National Park - near PY0155 - that was dated 1958.

 

Did various agencies use this style of marker and when were they used - maybe still are- ?

 

Thanks, Kayakbird, aka Mike

[+Kewaneh & Shark]

A bit of history about the Bureau of Public Roads: The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) was created on October 15, 1966, however it has several predecessor organizations and a complicated history. The first predecessor was the Office of Road Inquiry (ORI) founded on in 1893. In 1905 that organization's name was changed to the Office of Public Roads (OPR), and it became a division of the United States Department of Agriculture. The name was changed to Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) in 1915. In 1939 the name was changed to Public Roads Administration (PRA) and it was shifted to the Federal Works Agency (FWA). With the abolition of the FWA in 1949, its name was changed back to BPR and it was shifted to the Department of Commerce. In 1967 the BPR was transferred to the newly created FHWA, and was one of three original bureaus along with the Bureau of Motor Carrier Safety and the National Highway Safety Bureau (now known as NHTSA).

 

CLICK HERE for a few pics.

Edited April 7, 2009 by Kewaneh & Shark

[kayakbird]

A bit of history about the Bureau of Public Roads: The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) was created---

 

Thanks K. & Shark, Now I gotta wonder how many in my neck of the woods have PID status. ML

[CallawayMT]

A bit of history about the Bureau of Public Roads: The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) was created---

 

Thanks K. & Shark, Now I gotta wonder how many in my neck of the woods have PID status. ML

 

Mike,

 

All you have to do is come over to Missoula and there is a whole run up Highway 12 to Lolo Pass.

 

Bureau of Public Roads

 

Kurt

[kayakbird]

Kewaneh & Shark, CallawayMT & all,

 

More questions raised. Kurt, I looked at the US 12 highway stations several each of three different agency stampings that have "---PUBLIC ROADS--" on either the inner or outer ring. None are dated and none match the two different ones I found in the Gardiner, MT area last week. Would these have been set at two different times, two different highway contracts? Were the setting posts the same style?

 

Kewaneh & Shark, the one you have pictured in your blog (1952) matches my NONPID (1958) that is on the same bridge walkway as PY0155 . Does yours have a PID?

 

Maybe the makings of a good photo contest here?

 

Mike

[kayakbird]

error - dead air - sorry

Edited April 9, 2009 by kayakbird

[kayakbird]

Laptop scouting along US 395 from Burns to Pendleton, OR I noticed in GSAK numerous marks that had been placed by BPR (Bureau of Public Roads) - one of my favorite sub-sets to target. Ten hours & 200 miles of very scenic road (some of it in the dark, darn it)later I had checked about 20 locations. All of the dozen found were by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, most set in 1929, a couple in 1931 and one from 1939. Several will have to be NGS Recovered as POOR because of the bad quality of concrete in the posts.

 

1931 BPR WW 71

 

 

1929 BPR 35 135 RM 3 The triangulation station - PA0276 DESIGNATION - 35 134 - is gone.

 

 

1939 BPR 35 213 (with lichens)

 

 

kayakbird

[TillaMurphs]

Here are a few more BPR disks:

 

Here is a 1940 disk near Happy Hollow, Oregon. RD0958

 

Here is a 1934 reset in the same area as the disk above. RD0961. Hard to photograph when half is covered with white paint.

 

Here is an UNKNOWN date in Arizona. ES0161

[kayakbird]

Here are a few more BPR disks:

 

Here is an UNKNOWN date in Arizona. ES0161

 

Tillamurphs BPR PIPE CAP

 

 

Thanks, TillaMurphs

 

Now I have to look through mine to see if I have a BPR 'pipe cap'! MEL

 

A maybe and a too late!

 

MY VERY FIRST BPR

 

But I think that I remember that it was a standard tang disk that had been brazed to a pipe - will have to go back.

I launched on a Yellowstone River kayak trip three miles downstream two weeks ago!

 

2003 GOOD by imapackrat

 

Location now gone to road improvements leading to the new Colorado River bridge at Hoover Dam.

 

kayakbird

Edited August 1, 2012 by kayakbird

[kayakbird]

Meeting friends from Moab, Utah at the Boiling River near Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park gave me an excuse to drive the back road (abandoned RR grade) through Yankee Jim Canyon and verify that my BPR pipe cap is a standard tang style that has been welded to an iron pipe.

 

BPR DISK (tang style) WELDED TO PIPE

 

 

Any others out there? MEL

[2oldfarts (the rockhounders)]

All the BPR benchmarks that we have found have been of the pipe cap variety. But then, we have only found 5 or six BPRs.

 

John

[kayakbird]

All the BPR benchmarks that we have found have been of the pipe cap variety. But then, we have only found 5 or six BPRs.

 

John

 

John,

 

Are yours the thick disk with pipe threads such as TillaMurphs ES0161, or a thinner tang style welded to the pipe? Mike

[2oldfarts (the rockhounders)]

All the BPR benchmarks that we have found have been of the pipe cap variety. But then, we have only found 5 or six BPRs.

 

John

 

John,

 

Are yours the thick disk with pipe threads such as TillaMurphs ES0161, or a thinner tang style welded to the pipe? Mike

 

Here are 2 pictures showing 2 different marks. Both are of the screw on cap type.

 

 

GQ0014

 

 

GQ0033

 

John

[kayakbird]

John,

 

Thanks for those threaded cap pictures & links. I'll put a couple on my target list for this fall.

 

GSAK filters out 50 in Arizona that were placed by BPR and another ten that are reference marks that may not have a PID. Used DSWorld to pin them on Google Earth. Several are now gone after the rebuild of US 93 southeast of Hoover Dam, put looks like a nice pocket of them around Show Low and then further southeast along US 191. MEL