Benchmark hunting in Wisconsin

[talysarn]

To all Wisconsin Geocache seekers,

The Wisconsin State Cartographer's Office (SCO) has a web page entirely devoted to locating benchmarks in Wisconsin. It contails NGS data as well as old USGS benchmarks dating back to the 1930's. I have found many that have been long described as lost. My best example is in Barron County where a scribed x in the bottom step of steps leading to a house was described as lost. I was able to locate the foundation of the house (which was gone) and was also able to locate the steps. I cleared away about 3 inches of dirt and found the bottom step. The benchmark was still there. As I am a land surveyor, I used survey-grade GPS to tie into the mark from a local First Order Horizontal and Vertical. I found the mark within 1/8" of it's published value. The mark was set in the '30s, but had not be visited or seen for over fifty years. Be diligent. Many are still around. When looking for them, think of what the area used to be like and how things were described. Anyway, here is the link.....

 

http://sco.wisc.edu/geocat/index.php

 

Click on the button "Launch Control Finder" and just follow the instructions. You can also email the SCO if you have found a long lost mark or have discovered one that is long gone. They find it extremely helpful for the public to help with this endeavor.

 

P.S. they are also working on USPLSS corners in the same finder style format, if you've got more of a land surveying attitude.

[Relic_Hunter_Finder]

Question: This mark that you are talking about ... is it only in the particular areas you found it or is it a type of mark that was used primarily during that time period?

[talysarn]

Question: This mark that you are talking about ... is it only in the particular areas you found it or is it a type of mark that was used primarily during that time period?

It is a chiseled "x" in concrete. The person setting the mark will often use a small cold chisel and hammer to make an "x" into the concrete. If the concrete looks to be stable and may hold position well, it can be used anywhere at any time. I still use them for topographic surveys. I will chisel an "x" into bedrock, a large buried boulder or anything stable. They are not erasable or do not fade like paint or chalk. They have been used all over and for a long time. They are far from First or Second Order quality, but for topographic maps, flood plain studies and any type of construction, if they check against another mark, I'll use it.

[+Kewaneh & Shark]

Surveyors have been using chiseled crosses as survey marks for many years. They are still used when the situation calls for it, situations where a nail, pin, or other survey mark may not work. Here are some examples:

 

This chiseled cross & square were found on a pump base. Crosses are generally used for horizontal positioning. Squares are generally used for vertical positioning.

 

Link to Big Pic

 

Township 19 South, Range 15 East, Northwest Corner, Section 07. This corner was found about a 0.35 mile hike westerly from the nearest road. Found large boulder scribed with a cross and 'R XIV E' (Range 14 East). (This corner is also known as the SW Cor., Sec 1, T19S, R14E.) This cross was most likely set in the 1880's.

 

Link to Big Pic

 

Township 19 South, Range 14 East, Northwest Corner, Section 12. Found a rock scribed with a cross in the middle of a small pile of stones. Possible remnants of a small cairn. This cross was most likely set in the 1880's.

 

Link to Big Pic

 

Link to Big Pic

 

- Kewaneh

[mloser]

Thanks Kewaneh!

 

It seems you learn something new all the time. I wasn't aware that the shape of the chiseled mark meant anything, and now I know more. Most of the chiseled marks I have looked for have been squares, but a few have been crosses. Most of them have been along railroads, and all of them have been vertical control only, at least for the NGS. But perhaps during railroad surveys the crosses were used for horizontal control too. It is an intriguing thought.

 

I have seen chiseled crosses other places that were not in the NGS database. If you walk along any New York City street you will see crosses chiseled into the sidewalks, many of them marked with a spot of fluorescent paint to make it more visible. It makes perfect sense that these are used for construction surveys and are for horizontal control.

 

So what are chiseled circles used for? Are they just chiseled squares carved by a showoff?

[+Kewaneh & Shark]

Here are a few other chiseled marks I've found. Both of these are unique in their own ways. Both are found adjacent to railroads.

 

This is GU0640. It is a chiseled square, but unlike most squares, which are set at the edge of the concrete structure, this one was set in the middle.

 

Link to Big Pic

 

Link to Big Pic

 

This one is GU1061. It is a hybrid chiseled mark - a square with a cross in it. It's the only one I've seen, and I personally don't know that I'd ever set one. I'd prefer them to be seperate marks like on the pump base I posted earlier.

 

Link to Big Pic

 

Link to Big Pic

 

- Kewaneh

Edited February 27, 2007 by Kewaneh & Shark

[talysarn]

One of my favorite jobs as a construction surveyor is looking for long lost benchmarks when none have been found for years. Little did I realize when I posted the SCO info that there was a whole group of benchmark fanatics out there. Keep it up folks, there are lots of us out there that owe a days worth of work to those of you who have found (and documented) the marks before us.

[+Harry Dolphin]

Chiseled Crosses? Fanatics??

LY0668

KV0125

KV0135

Sure. Found a few of them...

[lost02]

Nothing beats this chiseled cross - BH0053!

 

[mloser]

That one cracked me up! Yep, it is a chiseled cross alright, but it certainly isn't a benchmark.

 

But there is another twist... take a look at the page for that mark and see if you can see what I saw. Hint: don't may much attention to the photo.

[Papa-Bear-NYC]

But there is another twist... take a look at the page for that mark and see if you can see what I saw.

Why bother? Edited March 3, 2007 by Papa-Bear-NYC

[+Black Dog Trackers]

mloser -

 

ASTRONOMICAL versus HYDROGRAPHIC?

[mloser]

Papa Bear got it!

[lost02]

Yeah, it seemed kind of odd to me that the first entry (in 1944) was a "Not Found". I hadn't seen a station identified that way before, but I figured there must be some reason why they did it.

[Papa-Bear-NYC]

Yeah, it seemed kind of odd to me that the first entry (in 1944) was a "Not Found". I hadn't seen a station identified that way before, but I figured there must be some reason why they did it.

That's the second entry. The first entry is "Unknown by CGS (MONUMENTED)" meaning the CGS states that it was monumented (as an astronomic station or whatever) at an unknown date.

 

But of course that has nothing to do with mloser's "twist". Look for the one that "doesn't count".

[+Black Dog Trackers]

I think the NOT FOUND is an error in the type of report.

[lost02]

That's the second entry. The first entry is "Unknown by CGS (MONUMENTED)" meaning the CGS states that it was monumented (as an astronomic station or whatever) at an unknown date.

The first history entry does show UNK - MONUMENTED, but the first description is for 1944 and appears to describe something, but the history shows 1944 MARK NOT FOUND. How can you not find what isn't even described in the first place?

[lost02]

I think the NOT FOUND is an error in the type of report.

OK, that would explain it.

[mloser]

I have seen reports with the Not Founds that accompany the description and think they are actual not found recoveries from the date of that recovery, but that the original text of the datasheet was somehow put in THAT recovery and not the monumented one.

 

Anyone else find the mystery yet? It is not about what, but who.

[lost02]

I have seen reports with the Not Founds that accompany the description and think they are actual not found recoveries from the date of that recovery, but that the original text of the datasheet was somehow put in THAT recovery and not the monumented one.

We haven’t stumbled into a mix up in the original monumented history/description/not found yet. If/when we see it we’ll at least we’ll know what happened.

 

Anyone else find the mystery yet? It is not about what, but who.

Oh, sounds like you must be talking about how I found the recovery in the first place.

[Papa-Bear-NYC]

I have seen a fair number of marks that were logs of much earlier surveys. In many cases the original descriptions were put into the newer log. For example there was a seminal leveling done in NYC in 1909-1913 with over 1000 bench marks monumented and measured. In 1952 a fair number of these were put in the CGS database (I guess it was a paper "database" then). Most had "UNK Monumented" and "1952 recoved good" in the history. Occasionally they would put in the original description from the old survey notes, and then state they didn't find it.

 

Here's a couple

 

KU1450

KU1439

 

The second one is like the mark under discussion in that the 1952 crew didn't find what they thought they would. (This turned out to be a misreading of the original notes).

 

So that aspect of the "Chiseled cross" does not surprise me.

 

But the cross depicted by the GC log doesn't look like any astronomic station I have seen pictured (Usually they are twin pedestals a couple of feet apart on which the instruments were mounted). I would bet it's a religious monument. It sure would be nice to know what's on that plaque.

 

My guess is that there was a chiseled cross on the astronomic station and that both are lost and the cross monument just happened to be in the vicinity.

 

There's no way to know without finding the original notes on the station. Perhaps one of the denizens of that region could do the research.

 

As for mloser's mystery - it's just sitting there in front of your eyes. While in college, I had a professor advise us "the best place to hide something is in plain sight"

Edited March 4, 2007 by Papa-Bear-NYC

[lost02]

Papa-Bear – Yeah, we’ve recovered a number of stations like you described where the History shows UNK – MONUMENTED and the first description was for the second History – in fact our first recovery was like that DU0766. I guess I never wondered how the entry had a description without the benefit of the monumented description until BH0053 because the description matched a History of MARK NOT DFOUND.

[mloser]

Well, it has been a couple days and I know Papa Bear figured it out and lost02 knew it all along. The mystery is that this "chiseled cross" was the ONLY benchmark reported by the OP of the "Benchmarking, why bother" thread.