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This weekend we decided to go to Cedar City area to do some locationless caches and get outta Page. After getting our room we headed up through Minersville, Utah and then up through Milford and north to a rather unique sandstone post with the chiseled square and USBM surrounding it. We got a surprise with this one.....

 

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Great stone! Any idea how old it is?

 

 

 

A few from last weeks MORC hunting trip along the Missouri Breaks and back to Lewistown via back roads in the Big Open.

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That is a lonely looking mark.

 

Great scenery in your pictures kayakbird.

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This sandstone post mark can be found in Sp Pub # 18 on page 220, Google page 226/334; one in a Salt Lake City to Zenda UT PLN run in 1908.

 

Here's one just a few miles further north.

 

PLN C 5 1908

 

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kayakbird

 

Edited the above run reference. Three chiseled square on sandstone posts are listed on P 220 Google 226/334. Below from Sp Pub #18.

 

DESCRIPTIONS OF PERMANENT BENCH MARKS BETWEEN SALT LAKE CITY AND ZENDA, UTAH, 1908. Starts on P 216

 

C 5,.-At Read, Beaver County, Utah, opposite mile pole 587, 19.12 meters east of the center of the track of the San

Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad, 1 meter below grade. (Note 11.")

 

D 5.--Two miles south of Read, Beaver County, Utah, opposite mile pole 585,23.30 meters east of the center of the

track of the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad, 1/2 meter below grade. (Note 11.")

 

E.-At Zenda, Beaver County, Utah, opposite station sign, 9% poles south of mile pole 583, 26.10 meters east of the

center of the track of the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad, % meter below grade. (Note 11.")

 

I 9.-Near Zenda, Beaver County, Utah (See p. 215.)

 

DESCRIPTIONS OF PERMANENT BENCH MARKS BETWEEN LAS VEGAS, NEV., AND ZENDA, UTAH, 1908. Starts on P 211

 

P 215 I 9.-Near Zenda, Beaver County, Utah, 25 meters east of the center line of the main track of the San Pedro, Los

Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad, opposite mile pole 581. (Note 2.”)

 

I 9 LAST IN RUN FROM VEGAS

 

9585e666-0060-4ce5-b3a4-8e986d4c2308.jpg

 

MEL

Edited by kayakbird
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I'm still searching the database for these two. First one was found on the jetty at Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach. The Port of Los Angeles marker I don't believe has ever been found before, so may be a new find.

 

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Those two aren't likely to be in the NGS database. The first is an Army Corps of Engineers survey mark while the second would be a City of Los Angeles survey mark. The ACOE mark does not show up on the ACOE's U-SMART system, and there isn't enough info posted here to try and find the second one, but here are some links to the ACOE and City of Los Angeles benchmark databases.

 

USACE Survey Marker Archive & Retrieval Tool (U-SMART)

https://rsgisias.crrel.usace.army.mil/apex/f?p=493:1:0::NO

(For current USACE marks, they may have nice HTML datasheets complete with pictures, the map's query tool is a little weird though since you have to make sure you have the right query layer selected. It can also show NGS benchmarks.)

 

City of LA precise benchmarks:

http://eng.lacity.org/techdocs/benchmarks/

 

USACE marks are often posted on Waymarking.com, (sister site to Geocaching.com) but I didn't see that particular one. There are others though, along with Orange County Survey Marks.

Edited by EdrickV
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Hi Yeah_meoW, welcome to benchmark hunting! Those are beautiful pictures. I think the one of the Lighthouse is awesome! It is one of the best of all the logs for this mark.

 

As for the other two marks you found, the DMA mark could be listed in the NGS database. We have found one of them...

63fc93d2-f3ef-4f54-8197-68adc4f2f91d.jpg

 

It is PID CZ1035 AM 50

 

Our find was in the middle of a concrete cross....

 

d5bede0a-bfa4-4d09-9ba8-71f72404ca20.jpg

 

You just have to go to the "searching benchmarks" page link and type in either By Designation: or the coordinates and click Find Benchmarks. If it does not come up with your mark, it is not in the Geocaching database of the old NGS database that we use for our hobby. Always check any marks in this way, as it just might have made it into the database. But, the easier way is to either go to nearest benchmarks on any Geocache page or benchmark page and a list of nearby marks will be available for you to go find. If you get into this hobby enough, you might want to get GSAK and download the Geocaching Database into it for your local area. You can find the way to do that here in these forums.

 

You have posted your first benchmark log, and I hope you log more and share them with us by posting more of your great pictures.

Good hunting.

 

Shirley~

 

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Thanks for the useful info EdrickV and Shirley :). I was able to find the first marker (NB 16) using the USACE link, pretty interesting site, never knew something like that existed. The second marker I cannot find. According to the City of LA map the marker was found in section 24, problem is the area I found it at is not referenced at all so I guess it will remain a mystery. I tried using # ranges nearby but all are land based. My only guess is the port may have their own database of markers. Seeing as I found the second one on the breakwater jetty about 7/10ths of a mile out :lol:

 

And Shirley thanks for your helps as well I'm still getting used to all the features available on here. Also thanks for the kind comments on the lighthouse photos. The jetty that leads to the lighthouse is technically "off limits" so easier to get a close up via boat. Problem is I don't have a boat so decided to walk the jetty early one morning, which was an adventure.

 

Here is another photo of the lighthouse I took while it was more silhouetted.

p4Jcx.jpg

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Thanks for the useful info EdrickV and Shirley :). I was able to find the first marker (NB 16) using the USACE link, pretty interesting site, never knew something like that existed. The second marker I cannot find. According to the City of LA map the marker was found in section 24, problem is the area I found it at is not referenced at all so I guess it will remain a mystery. I tried using # ranges nearby but all are land based. My only guess is the port may have their own database of markers. Seeing as I found the second one on the breakwater jetty about 7/10ths of a mile out :lol:

 

I thought you said the USACE disk was on the jetty? NB 1 6 (aka NGS DX1963) is supposed to be on the seawall, and (comparing with NB 1 5 here: DX1964 NGS Datasheet) it seems like it should be an Orange County Surveyor benchmark disk, not a USACE disk. (The layer you would have been looking at in U-Smart to see NB 1 6 would be an NGS layer, which you can also see on the site below with a Google Maps interface.) NB 1 6 has scaled coordinates, and from the description it looks like the coordinates are south of the actual location. (For scaled location benchmarks you usually try to figure out where it is based on the description rather then the coordinates. They can be quite a bit off)

http://benchmarks.scaredycatfilms.com/

 

Here is the Geocaching.com page for NB 1 6:

http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=DX1963

 

An example of how scaled coordinates can be off:

1005902k.jpg

I am at the blue circle on the GPS's screen. The scaled coordinates for the benchmark would put it out in the water.

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So I hike to the lighthouse again today; I say hike because it's a workout. Anyway I came across a topographic map earlier this week, its actually an NOAA ship tracking map, but if you zoom in it gives you a topo map of the entire U.S. [ http://shiptracker.noaa.gov/shiptracker.html ] with BM's listed.

 

7610747378_a1da3d1108_b.jpg

 

So the lighthouse is BM13

7610771598_d4509e7c59_b.jpg

 

Heading back to land this is BM10

7610746898_42d8385f72_b.jpg

 

the middle one, BM9, I cannot find. I reckon its been destroyed since part of the original jetty/brealwall was destroyed and replaced with randomly jumbled rocks.

 

The last one also BM9 (next to the fishing pier) is in quite dire condition.

7610748372_efc5f1f56c_b.jpg

 

As for the "Port of Los Angeles - Survey" markers I found 6 in total, but would guess they are only used by the port so likely not referenced anywhere. I did however find a LA county marker near the lighthouse, which was reset in 1959

7610817770_cca206ba6e_b.jpg

 

All in all it was a great day 1950 is the oldest BM I have found thus far so quite trilled :)

Edited by Yeah_meoW
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So I hike to the lighthouse again today; I say hike because it's a workout. Anyway I came across a topographic map earlier this week, its actually an NOAA ship tracking map, but if you zoom in it gives you a topo map of the entire U.S. [ http://shiptracker.noaa.gov/shiptracker.html ] with BM's listed.

 

Nice finds, thanks for sharing the photos! FYI, the 9s, 10 and 13 on the map are elevations, rather than an identifier or name for the marks.

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Bill,

 

Great stone work - looks like it is good for another 96 years at least. Anymore in that 1916 USGS string near by?

 

Did you come in from the Islay Hill hiking trail? kayakbird

Yep, came in from one of the Islay Hill parking areas. Islay Hill is the last (southernmost) of a string of ancient volcano plugs -

Black Hill is 'second' in the string. pretty sure i posted this before but what the heck...

54367f49-ccb4-4e79-90c6-9728528baa1f.jpg

418c8d5c-9901-4c80-838b-732299bfd852.jpg

 

I've never taken the time to ask for a listing of all those USGS marks that aren't in the NGS database so ....

FV0704 looks like it is #20 where FV0694 is #18 in the series - is that what those stamped numbers mean??

FV0340 #17

Scardy Cat's Benchmark Viewer is awesome.

Edited by billwallace
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'-----FV0704 looks like it is #20 where FV0694 is #18 in the series - is that what those stamped numbers mean??---'

 

Bill & all,

 

As far as I know when USGS bothered to stamp a disk the numbers were sequential. The best string that I have followed along is from northwest to east of Green River, Utah. At least ten PID'S with stamped numbers between 46 and 67; two of which are actually International Border Commission pipe caps that some how drifted down from the Medicine Line.

 

IBC PIPE CAP IN UTAH!

 

8edf8336-966e-482d-b14b-6020e46a44ed.jpg

 

Another one was used in a CGS string with a new name and the elevation over-stamped.

 

OLD ELEV 4062

 

05c23002-2ecc-494f-9ec1-0673eccc2042.jpg

 

And Bill, thanks for the additional scenery shots. kayakbird

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U 181

S 181

T 181

 

This last Friday, we were able to welcome back 4 Tusgkegee Airman to Alabama. They flew into Montgomery and headed out to Moton Air Field. It was their first time since their training during WWII. My family and I were out near Tuskegee Alabama and had to stop. I love visiting history like this.

 

Three marks are accessible to the public by visiting the museum. Great piece of history. Hanger #2 will be open soon with a real "Red Tail" inside.

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The update last night has shut down all pictures on the GC site. Lets hope they can get them back....

 

Shirley~

 

=================

 

Not quite all - see other thread. Glad to know that I don't have to go laptop shopping!! MEL

 

1005 ALL HAPPY NOW. MEL

Edited by kayakbird
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Imagine my delight when I climbed to the top of Fort Scaur and looked down to see this at my feet:

 

375eee37-759d-474f-ba5c-2decb2586983.jpg

 

Here's a view looking north across the mark. The lovely Mrs NW is at left center, and our ship the Explorer of the Seas is on the horizon.

 

5308c14f-83f0-4af1-a867-f595e11d5679.jpg

 

We were hiking the Railroad Trail on Bermuda on October 17th. It was pretty neat to 'stumble across' this Bermuda mark here on top of the Fort.

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2OF's,

 

Did you get stopped at the state line or one of the roads running off to the east?

 

kayakbird

 

PS: Looks like you need to add a 20 ft extension ladder to your tool bag! MEL

 

One of the roads closed ran to the southeast from Hwy 93 in NV and the other that has a nice line of 1941 marks ran to the southwest from Pahranagat Lake. The road from Pahranagat Lake was posted - no unauthorized vehicles - and no info on who to contact to get permission.

 

We stopped at the state line on old Hwy 91, because we have recovered just about everything going north from there.

 

Are you going to help carry that ladder back up to the road?

 

c3aa5836-3b3f-4049-a6a7-8ff1404cd96a.jpg

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I had to work for these two last weekend. Probably my last chance before the snow sets in at this elevation.

 

TT4617

 

24010c3a-31df-433a-aea7-2ee05916ea6b.jpg

 

TT4619

 

1d156ecb-2586-40df-ae6b-973d4707c149.jpg

 

Nice shots! I especially like the 'FENN' photo looking across the Eagle River estuary towards Mt Susitna (Sleeping Lady) on the horizon.

Your close-up photo of the disk on your log shows off one of the nicest 'custom' city marks I've ever seen; R&M did a nice job with the

rendition of Captain Cook's sailing vessel and the anchor. I see you went hiking on one of the only clear days we had this fall...

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Running around Death Valley and southwestern Nevada over the Thanksgiving week. I really love taking this weekn off every year and hanging out somewhere in the desert, without all those trees and grass and stuff getting in the way of things. B)

 

Stopped over in Goldfield a few days ago and found this C&GS disc near the front of the Goldfield Hotel.

 

HQ0339 K 15

 

c6d762aa-ccba-40df-9ee6-86ac32731548.jpg

 

2c5fadc0-aff5-4f87-b148-ca2f89ee268a.jpg

 

Unknown date of monument, but these were set along the route of the Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad, operational from Beatty to Goldfield from 1908-1914. It's a style of disc I often see with 19-teens dates. No date this one, just elevation and the designation mark.

 

The track was removed during WW I, in this area, but x 15 marks appear set along the old right of way from that era. I'd love to explore the old RoW some day, see how many of the old marks can still be found.

 

It was a good trip, with about 50 benchmarks found, most very easily, though some took a bit more effort and at least one other may have been graded or washed away since the last find.

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Stopped over in Goldfield a few days ago and found this C&GS disc near the front of the Goldfield Hotel.

Was there just over a year ago. :) I recognized the face of the building as soon as I saw your pic. When we were there, the old lady caretaker was there, and she let my friend and I inside the hotel. It. Was. Amazing. The old 1880's elevator inside was neat.

 

Did you also stop by the old Goldfield High School? They were working on restoring it when I was there, and there was supposed to be a mark in the front yard, but I wasn't able to locate it.

 

--Mike

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Stopped over in Goldfield a few days ago and found this C&GS disc near the front of the Goldfield Hotel.

Was there just over a year ago. :) I recognized the face of the building as soon as I saw your pic. When we were there, the old lady caretaker was there, and she let my friend and I inside the hotel. It. Was. Amazing. The old 1880's elevator inside was neat.

 

Did you also stop by the old Goldfield High School? They were working on restoring it when I was there, and there was supposed to be a mark in the front yard, but I wasn't able to locate it.

 

--Mike

 

Looked around for the High School one, too, but the description is a little vague. I wondered if there was another school to the west of Goldfield High School. Put in a boulder, seems it should be around somewhere.

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One of the roads closed ran to the southeast from Hwy 93 in NV and the other that has a nice line of 1941 marks ran to the southwest from Pahranagat Lake. The road from Pahranagat Lake was posted - no unauthorized vehicles - and no info on who to contact to get permission.

 

This may be a little late, but I was curious so I looked into this a bit. Looking at the string of benchmarks via the benchmark viewer, that road heading southwest near Lower Pahranagat Lake would be part of Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge, and the string of marks continues into Desert National Wildlife Refuge and beyond to the Nellis Test range. (So you wouldn't be able to do the whole string, but some of it is still accessible and some of the string in Pahranagat that's not accessible by car might be accessible on foot. But I'm not totally sure about that. The entrance to Pahranagat NWR is north of the road, closer to the upper lake, and is apparently called HQ Entrance road. The HQ road branches off and the remaining road becomes Alamo road, which apparently goes all the way to the Desert National Wildlife Refuge and 95.

 

These are the parts of the string(s) that seem like they should be car accessible: HP0195 L 304 to HP0197 N 304 and GR0862 E 313 to GR0871 P 313. Marks before L 304 would be on that closed road that started at 93. Between N 304 and E 313 the marks follow a different road then Alamo road, and that road may not be open to vehicle traffic. After P 313 the marks go into Nellis territory, which obviously you wouldn't be able to go into. Some marks along an old railroad track south of the NWR/Nellis area may be accessible too, but those I've looked at had notices saying they were near or "very close" to the border of Nellis property.

 

A bit of info for this post came from a log on L 304, while a lot of it came from looking at the maps for the two NWR areas. (The Desert NWR map shows how close the Nellis range is to Alamo road, and it actually overlaps the Desert NWR which kinda messes with Google Maps.)

 

http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=HP0195

Edited by EdrickV
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Awesome pictures! You were sooo close to the station mark! Only ten paces!! But, when you are overheated and wore out.....next time you will find it.

 

BillWallace, I just noticed no one had commented on your wonderful disk in a tree - I could not imagine that someone would set a full sized disk in a tree! Neat shot of that one.

 

Shirley~

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Those were some stunning ridgetop photos, Yeah_meoW! Most visitors don't get too far off the beaches - we did some hiking around the interior on our last visit, and I'm looking forward to doing more on our next visit. Breathtaking (more ways than one!)

 

Haven't been out much this summer (hottest/driest summer in memory here in Southcentral Alaska, and I've been working six days a week supporting road construction all over the state). We did get away for a weekend to camp down at USFS Trail River Campground, on Kenai Lake. I'd been itching to look for a couple of adjusted marks along the highway/railroad corridor near there. I found all three marks I was looking for, but to my disappointment one has to be logged as destroyed thanks to landscaping work related to resurfacing the Seward Highway.

 

f4909659-4465-455c-9ded-59d8bdeab5e5.jpg4f41e54e-d816-40f5-aefe-d8b149617fe1.jpg

UW7677 MUSK (named after the then-nearby village of Muskwa - now a memory found only on maps and old census records) was found where it had been tossed aside atop a road cut through the mark's low hilltop site. The disk was in place atop the concrete plug. Nearby, RM2 was found in like condition. It's pretty sad to find marks like this, and it's happened to me 4 times now. I relate some of the mark's purpose and history on my 'destroyed' log.

 

23fae175-86db-4bd2-afb8-09c9c6d4d019.jpg

Just a few hundred yards down the highway I found TT0371 A12, a mark date-stamped 1923. Certainly one of the prettiest settings I've seen - giant moss-covered rock in a tree-shaded strip between the highway and the railroad. Quick and easy find too, as it's an adjusted mark. A few of this 1923 series have been recovered between Seward and Anchorage along the Alaska Railroad, but most lie quietly with ninety years' worth of forest litter covering them.

 

48a7cfa7-da83-4879-892a-2cfcba71073f.jpg

Last find of the afternoon was TT0376 Q 76, a relatively mundane C&GS disk on a bridge wingwall - mundane, except for its history. This mark is set on the replacement bridge for one of the few road structures totally destroyed in that 9.2 magnitude 1964 Good Friday Earthquake. This area was hard-hit during the 3 1/2 minutes of ground motion, with long stretches of the Alaska Railroad sloughing off into Kenai Lake.

 

So many of southcentral Alaska's benchmarks are date-stamped 1964, and it's intriguing to research the history behind the geological work that occurred in each area where you find them. Almost all the '64 marks are related in one way or another to that Good Friday earthquake!

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One of our favorites would have to be this one:

 

FH1007

 

6873baf0-fd36-4a97-bab2-c88be8834359.jpg

 

It marks the state line between Oklahoma and Arkansas. I've never seen one like it, an octagonal iron rod in the ground.

 

01/01/1935 by CGS (MONUMENTED)

DESCRIBED BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1935 THIS TRAVERSE STATION IS AN OCTAGONAL IRON MONUMENT ABOUT 5 INCHES IN DIAMETER AND PROJECTING ABOUT 2 FEET. IT HAS AN IRON CAP COMING TO A POINT IN THE MIDDLE. IT IS ENGRAVED 1877 ON S FACE NO. 73 ON E FACE, AND CHER ON W FACE. IT IS IN A TRIANGLE FORMED BY A RAILROAD TRACK FROM THE S CONNECTING INTO AN E-W TRACK WITH A Y. IT IS ABOUT 125 YARDS E OF RAILROAD STATION. IT IS LEANING SOMEWHAT. IT IS ABOUT 5 MILES N OF FORT SMITH, AND 5 MILES W OF VAN BUREN. THIS STATION WAS CONNECTED BY TRAVERSE TO STATION GREENWOOD.

 

Had a hell of a time finding it. My GPS had a software glitch and was constantly in 'recalculating route' mode. It was getting dark and I was using the map screen to narrow down the search area.

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One of our favorites would have to be this one:

 

FH1007

 

It marks the state line between Oklahoma and Arkansas. I've never seen one like it, an octagonal iron rod in the ground.

I like that one. I found that on a drive between GA and CO a handful of years back. I wasn't able to get images, as the time I was there was the height of mosquito season, and I really was being eaten alive. Was awful. But I like that iron rod. (I actually DO have a fuzzy picture of it, and always meant to go back..)

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