Buried Bottles as Stations

[+popop]

While geocaching along the Oregon coast between Gold Beach and Brookings I decided to attempt to recover some benchmarks if I could. I came across several set in late 1800's that describe the station as "THE STATION IS MARKED ABOUT 2-1/2 FEET UNDERGROUND BY A BOTTLE. THREE STAKES AROUND THE STATION ...". None had been recovered in recent years. One recovery note speculated that perhaps bottle hunters had dug these up.

 

Just interested in hearing from you experts about this type of station set. Was the station really just a glass bottle buried? Were they set on top of some other mark? Was there a prescribed way to place them? Why didn't they get reset with disks later?

 

One example is PID OA0962 Deep Gulch

 

Thanks in advance for your collective wisdom

 

Mike

Coos County, OR

[+Kewaneh & Shark]

...Just interested in hearing from you experts about this type of station set. Was the station really just a glass bottle buried? Were they set on top of some other mark? Was there a prescribed way to place them? Why didn't they get reset with disks later?...

 

Survey marks, when set, need to be easily identifiable. Now days, we have the advantage if stampable brass disks, but this wasn't always the case. Many times the survey crew used what was available to them. Piles of rocks (cairns), wood & stone posts, and groupings of pits & mounds, along with other things, were all used monument a surveyed points or lines. Glass bottles, often filled with charcoal or ashes, were occasionally used, as benchmarks and Public Land Survey System (PLSS) section corners.

 

Buried glass bottles were not set on top of other marks as the bottle itself was the mark. There was not a particularly prescribed way to set them, per se. The intent was to make an identifiable, long-lasting monument. While it may seem odd, a buried glass bottle has/had that potential, treasure hunters notwithstanding.

 

Usually this type of mark, or any survey mark for that matter, would not be replaced, just for replacement's sake. If the monument had been removed, and it's replacement was necessary, it would be done in a more traditional method. Generally when it comes to monuments 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'. If the bottle is still there, so is the monument.

 

These types of marks, including buried glass bottles, would be considered a type of triangulation station, used for horizontal positioning only.

 

- Kewaneh

[+m&h]

We encountered data sheets for buried-bottle monuments in 2005, when we were looking for marks on the island of Nantucket. Few of them have been recovered, none by us, but the reason has more to do with the surface than the buried bottles, which may in some cases still lie undisturbed. Nantucket has always had a shifting shoreline, and development there has verged on the irresponsible, so a stake in a dune with a tack in the top of it is not likely to have endured since 1875.

 

It’s interesting that, as old as these marks are, there was in some cases enough information about them to enable calculation of adjusted coordinates. One or two of these now plot offshore, thanks to beach erosion.

 

A good example is LW4177, which is now perhaps further inland than it was when placed. The original description is interesting for its use of a movable reference point. We might add that the dwellings in the vicinity of the coordinates are no longer small.

 

LW4177'DESCRIBED BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1875 (JAS)

LW4177'STATION IS ON THE BLUFF DIRECTLY IN RANGE WITH BUG LIGHTS, WHICH

LW4177'ARE BETWEEN THE FOOT OF THE BLUFF BELOW THE STATION AND THE SHORE.

LW4177'THE BUG LIGHTS ARE IN SMALL BUILDINGS ON WHEELS AND ARE DESIGNED

LW4177'TO BE SHIFTED AS THE CHANNEL CHANGES. THE SURFACE MARK IS A STAKE

LW4177'WITH AN ORDINARY WIRE NAIL IN THE HEAD, THE NAIL IN THE STUB

LW4177'BEING 21 METERS (69 FEET) FROM THE NE CORNER OF A SMALL DWELLING

LW4177'AND IN RANGE WITH THE E SIDE OF IT. THE UNDERGROUND MARK IS A

LW4177'BOTTLE EMBEDDED IN EARTH 3 FEET BELOW THE SURFACE OF THE GROUND,

LW4177'IN AN UPRIGHT POSITION.

LW4177

LW4177 STATION RECOVERY (1949)

LW4177

LW4177'RECOVERY NOTE BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1949 (ERM)

LW4177'STATION NOT RECOVERED. ORIGINAL POSITION OF BUG LIGHTS CHANGED.

LW4177

LW4177 STATION RECOVERY (1955)

LW4177

LW4177'RECOVERY NOTE BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1955 (EHK)

LW4177'STATION NOT RECOVERED. ALL REFERENCES ARE GONE. UNDERGROUND

LW4177'MARK IS PROBABLY BURIED DEEP IN THE SAND AND LOST.

[Papa-Bear-NYC]

I like those bug lights. But here's one I may go looking for:

 

QH0624

QH0624'DESCRIBED BY INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY COMMISSION 1914 (JEM)

QH0624'IN CANAAN TOWNSHIP, ON THE EAST SIDE OF HALLS STREAM, ON A SMALL

QH0624'KNOLL ABOUT 120 FEET FROM HALLS STREAM AND ABOUT 175 FEET SOUTH OF

QH0624'THE INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY PRODUCED ACROSS THE STREAM.

QH0624'

QH0624'STATION MARK--A STANDARD BRONZE DISK SET FLUSH WITH THE SURFACE OF

QH0624'THE GROUND IN THE TOP OF A 3-FOOT CONCRETE POST. THE SUBSURFACE

QH0624'MARK IS A GIN BOTTLE BURIED 3-1/4 FEET BELOW THE SURFACE OF THE

QH0624'GROUND.

 

Now where did those guys come up with a gin bottle, of all things.

Edited January 5, 2007 by Papa-Bear-NYC

[holograph]

Somewhere I came across recommended practices for surveyors in the 1800's, and one of the things that was stated was that the marks should have no intrinsic value. That was to discourage scavengers from stealing them or digging them up. An earthenware cone was frequently the item of choice, but as others have noted, a glass bottle filled with ashes was also often used.

 

Unfortunately, a 150 year old glass bottle today has some intrinsic value, so it wouldn't surprise me to find that some have been dug up by collectors.

 

edit: found the following quote:

From the 1868 Report to the Superintendent of the The United States Coast Survey

p. 115, Appendix 7, Memoranda Relating to the Field Work of the Secondary Triangulation

Prepared by Richard D. Cutts, Assistant.

 

The essential requisites for an underground mark or one buried below the frost and plow line, and beyond the reach of ordinary accident or interference, say three feet, in the clear, below the surface are: indestructibility, peculiarity, capacity to resist displacement in case it should be accidentally struck, cheapness, and finally, want for any of the ordinary purposes of life, as a protection against cupidity. The following marks, partaking more or less of the essential qualities, have been adopted in the survey.

 

1. The frustrum of a hollow stoneware cone, called the Hassler cone. The dimensions for primary stations are for the upper and lower diameters and the height 8, 12, and 15 inches respectively.

 

2. One similar in shape to the preceding, but made of iron, and occasionally with a rim like that of a hat, encircling the larger diameter, upon which are inscribed in the casting the words "U.S. Coast Survey."

 

3. A hollow stoneware pyramid.

 

4. A short column of marble, granite or sandstone, manufactured for the purpose, and in some cases placed above the cone, the top reaching withi six inches of the surface.

 

5. A block composed of brick or stones and hydraulic cement.

 

6. A bottle with three others just below the surface pointing to the lower one.

 

The center of the station in the cone is either the center of the periphery or the intersection of two lines drawn on the head of a copper tack driven in a stub placed and packed inside of cone, and sometimes extending within a foot of the surface; or, when a block is used, by the intersection of cross-lines on the head of a copper bolt inserted for the purpose. The initials U.S.C.S. are occasionally cut upon the block.

 

Of these and other varieties of underground marks which have been adopted at times from choice and again from necessity, the stoneware or iron cones are clearly to be preferred.

Edited January 4, 2007 by holograph

[+popop]

Thanks for the responses - very interesting stuff.

[+Black Dog Trackers]

I've found this bottle and earthenware cone situation curious also. Unfortunately surveyors can't find bottles and earthenware cones with a metal detector. Of course back, then no one would've predicted a metal detector technology. The curious thing to me is how was anyone expected to recover these markers for use long ago? It seems that one would essentially have to re-do the survey in order to just find the place to dig! Could it be that these bottle and cone markers were never really expected to be recovered and were just intermediate points that had to be made to connect primary stations?

[68-eldo]

I've found this bottle and earthenware cone situation curious also. Unfortunately surveyors can't find bottles and earthenware cones with a metal detector. Of course back, then no one would've predicted a metal detector technology. The curious thing to me is how was anyone expected to recover these markers for use long ago? It seems that one would essentially have to re-do the survey in order to just find the place to dig! Could it be that these bottle and cone markers were never really expected to be recovered and were just intermediate points that had to be made to connect primary stations?

 

From somewhere in the far corners of my memory I seem to get the impression that property corners were marked with rock cairns. I would imagine that surveyors would use a cairn as a surface mark. But that is a guess on my part.

[holograph]

I've found this bottle and earthenware cone situation curious also. Unfortunately surveyors can't find bottles and earthenware cones with a metal detector. Of course back, then no one would've predicted a metal detector technology. The curious thing to me is how was anyone expected to recover these markers for use long ago? It seems that one would essentially have to re-do the survey in order to just find the place to dig! Could it be that these bottle and cone markers were never really expected to be recovered and were just intermediate points that had to be made to connect primary stations?

 

I would think that they recovered them the same way we do when we don't have the GPS to rely on. They had descriptions and azimuths to other triangulation stations. One of the reasons for the "peculiarity" aspect of a good mark was so that when they dug up the mark, it was recognizable as something that wouldn't ordinarily occur by accident so they could be certain that they found the right object.

 

What interests me is that so many of these old marks were recovered in the 20's and 30's and replaced with disks, or mounted disks on the surface above them. Those guys probably did a lot of digging to find the original underground marks!