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State survey markers


rtreit

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I'm curious, do people hunt state survey markers (such as this)? Are they considered "benchmarks" in the context of benchmark hunting or is benchmark hunting strictly about NGS benchmarks?

 

Also, do surveyors still use NGS markers or are they mostly using the state variety? Or both? In other words, are NGS benchmarks mostly historical or still being actively used for practical purposes? Also does NGS create new benchmarks very often?

 

The more I learn about benchmark hunting the more I feel I should go buy a geodesy textbook.

 

Thanks,

 

rtreit

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>do people hunt state survey markers

 

Some people like to find anything they can, and you can log this type of marker on the Waymarking side of the Groundspeak site.

 

>Are they considered "benchmarks" in the context of benchmark hunting or is benchmark hunting strictly about NGS benchmarks?

 

Most people concentrate on the marks in the snapshot of the NGS data base that the geocaching site has.

 

>do surveyors still use NGS markers

Very definitely. You often see laths and flagging tape near them showing that someone used them for practical purposes.

 

>are they mostly using the state variety?

The state and county networks are often a "densification" to make known points more accessible, but those networks are based on NGS data.

 

>does NGS create new benchmarks very often?

They themselves set some but far fewer than in the past. If a professional takes the right kind of data with approved procedures (Blue Booking) then NGS will add their marks to the data base.

 

>The more I learn about benchmark hunting the more I feel I should go buy a geodesy textbook.

 

I'd recommend some basic surveying books, especially the ones before 1980, to get an appreciation for how the old horizontal (triangulation) and vertical (leveling) networks were measured.

 

You need modern books to learn about how GPS has changed things.

 

You have to be pretty hard-core and mathematical to get much out of the geodesy books I've looked at. I have, however, learned some things from them.

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