A question: first recovery since 1901?

[Papa-Bear-NYC]

Although Hook MT 2 was a great recovery for me on my Moday outing, it was not the only find.

 

After climbing Hook Mountain, I followed the Long Path along the ridge to the road that comes in from Rockland Lake (it's called Landing Road) and folowed it down to the river. Once at the bottom I followed the so-called bike path (it's a rather eroded old path with a few sections that seem to heve been upgraded recently) north to LX4183 "WEST" which was another very interesting station. It's a chiseled cross inside a chiseled triangle on a large boulder at the river's edge. To get there from the path, I had to scramble down a steep gully - not for the faint hearted. The boulder was there, as was the station and it was nice to see a totally secluded and undeveloped part of the shore line.

 

Check out the scene:

 

 

But more interesting still is what was in the NGS log on the datasheet:

 

LX4183 HISTORY - Date Condition Recov. By

LX4183 HISTORY - 1900 MONUMENTED CGS

LX4183 HISTORY - 1932 SEE DESCRIPTION CGS

LX4183

LX4183 STATION DESCRIPTION

LX4183

LX4183''DESCRIBED BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1932 (CAE)

LX4183''STATION IS ON AN IMMENSE BOULDER STANDING ABOUT 2-1/2 FEET (TOP

LX4183''OF IT) OUT OF THE WATER AT HIGH WATER, ON W BANK OF RIVER

LX4183''OPPOSITE CROTON POINT.

LX4183''

LX4183''THE STATION IS CENTER OF CROSS SURROUNDED BY TRIANGLE THUS

LX4183''TRIANGULATION STATION CUT INTO FACE OF ROCK.

LX4183''

LX4183''THIS POINT IS ABOUT 1-1/4 MILES N OF ROCKLAND LAKE LIGHT.

LX4183''

LX4183''RECOVERED IN AUGUST 1901.

 

Note that the 1932 entry is not listed as a recovery - it just says "SEE DESCRIPTION" in the history. Furthermore, the last line of the entry is "RECOVERED IN AUGUST 1901". I'm thinking that the 1932 entry is just the original description from old records which had not until then got entered. This happens numerous times when old marks are put in by more recent surveys (hence all the UKN for monumentation dates). The language in the text is also more 1900-ish than 1932-ish.

 

So possibly my recovery was the first since 1901. What do you think?

 

DaveD - would any records you have access to bear on this question?

 

Monday was a good day, to be sure.

Edited May 16, 2007 by Papa-Bear-NYC

[+Klemmer]

Do you think where it says: "... BY TRIANGLE THUS ..." the surveyor would have drawn a picture of the cross inside the triangle? I guess some things don't go into computers so well. Another nice recovery!

 

Seems to me like it might be the first recovery since 1901. Just IMHO.

[mloser]

I think it meant "THE STATION IS CENTER OF CROSS SURROUNDED BY TRIANGLE. THIS TRIANGULATION STATION CUT INTO FACE OF ROCK." What a missing period and misspelling can do!

Edited May 16, 2007 by mloser

[AZcachemeister]

As if the first recovery since 1932 wouldn't be impressive enough!

Looks like a real nice area to be tramping around in.

[Papa-Bear-NYC]

To be honest, I wasn't concerned with the grammar of the description. It just seemed like an earlier way of speaking. "THUS" would be fine as would "THIS" with or without a period. 1932 would be fine for the previous recovery. 1901 would be even better. Either way was a fun recovery.

 

Here's the cross in the triangle for those who didn't look:

 

 

A cool mark whatever the last recovery was.

[mloser]

I love this sort of recovery story, and would love to see more of these on this forum! To me benchmarking is about a lot of things: walking in the woods, finding old marks, meeting interesting and odd people, seeing places I have never seen before, etc.

 

Thank you Papa-Bear for keeping this sort of thread alive. You seem to be one of the few who keep us entertained about your hunting quests. I keep promising I will do the same but then I get second thoughts or get busy and never do it. I will try to put up the details of my latest adventure soon.

 

Matt

[+Kewaneh & Shark]

Here's the cross in the triangle for those who didn't look:

 

 

A cool mark whatever the last recovery was.

 

I'll agree with that! Keep 'em coming Papa Bear. We don't have many like that over on this side of the continent, with the exception of some older PLSS marks. Thanks for letting us hunt vicariously through you.

 

- Kewaneh