May statistics

[holograph]

The May statistics are available on the statistics page. The maps and the counts by county have also been updated.

 

The last recovery report that made it into the NGS datasheets was dated May 28.

 

Congratulations to Ladybug Kids for submitting the new northernmost Geocac recovery with TT3759 (brrr!). Also notable is Papa Bear NYC's MY2539 recovery for the second least recently recovered station, tying his previous record at 175 years since the last recovery.

 

[Papa-Bear-NYC]

The May statistics are available on the statistics page. The maps and the counts by county have also been updated.

 

The last recovery report that made it into the NGS datasheets was dated May 28.

 

Congratulations to Ladybug Kids for submitting the new northernmost Geocac recovery with TT3759 (brrr!). Also notable is Papa Bear NYC's MY2539 recovery for the second least recently recovered station, tying his previous record at 175 years since the last recovery.

 

Once again thanks for your tireless work in publishing these stats every month.

 

I was surprised to see my name mentioned. I had no idea this station was one of the least recently recovered!! I didn't even remember there was such a category! It also happens to be a "Lazarus Log", my name for a station previously unpublished due to the lack of descriptive text, which I got to be published by doing a little research and supplying the description. Folks should know that Bob Holt (holtie22) deserves a good deal of credit as well. He actually lugged up his survey equipment to that site in the hopes that we could recover a bottled buried 3 feet under ground in 1886 and never seen again. Alas we did not find the bottle. But we did find the 2 drill holes put there in 1886 as reference points, one of which became a station itself in 1935: MY2536

 

Here it is:

 

 

So what ever was the other one I found tied with this? It's got to be another Borden station and probably also a "Lazarus Log". I'm guessing the one up by Mount Watatick. MY3829 That's a nice one (1833) since the original Borden copper bolt is still there. This one is not quite so cool since it's an 1890 reset of the boundary monument.

 

Here's that one:

 

[holograph]

The other least recently recovered station was indeed MY3829. It was monumented in 1833, and you recovered it last year, so it and MY2539 (monumented 1834 and recovered this year) are tied for the honor.

[+Harry Dolphin]

My travelling compaions have graciously decided to allow me 15 minuter, per, to hunt benchmarks on our upcoming trip. But, I do have a question concering the Independant Cities of Virginia... GX0205, for example, is in the Independant City of Salem, but is listed as Roanoke County. Bicknell's NGS report of 08/2005 does not color in The City of Salem. How does this work? Dolphin is eying a few white counties, but doesn't know what to make of the Independant Cities...

Hey, Papa-Bear, how come you've never been to Richmond County?

Thanks holograph, I enjoy the monthly updates!

[Papa-Bear-NYC]

...

Hey, Papa-Bear, how come you've never been to Richmond County?

...

 

Edited June 3, 2009 by Papa-Bear-NYC

[+PFF]

Darn! Four short of hitting the 2,000 milestone. Oh, well. I'll fix that in June.

 

Congratulations to rising stars kayakbird and PI Joe, who are leading the pack in 2009 YTD recoveries. Very impressive!

 

-Paul-

[+shorbird]

Can't get enough of those maps!! Thanks again...

[+m&h]

Thanks again, as always, and congratulations to the notables.

 

Cheers,

[ArtMan]

My travelling compaions have graciously decided to allow me 15 minuter, per, to hunt benchmarks on our upcoming trip. But, I do have a question concering the Independant Cities of Virginia... GX0205, for example, is in the Independant City of Salem, but is listed as Roanoke County. Bicknell's NGS report of 08/2005 does not color in The City of Salem. How does this work? Dolphin is eying a few white counties, but doesn't know what to make of the Independant Cities...

Hey, Papa-Bear, how come you've never been to Richmond County?

Thanks holograph, I enjoy the monthly updates!

 

Where most states have counties as their only second-level jurisdiction, Virginia has both counties and independent cities. These cities may be totally surrounded by the county but are not considered part of the county. Hence the term independent.

 

That said, I've identified numerous benchmarks which are physically located in an independent city but which are listed in the datasheet as being in the surrounding (or adjacent) county.

 

If you want to be sure you have all the benchmarks in the City of Falls Church, for example, it is a good idea to check adjacent counties of Fairfax and Arlington. For example, HV2308 is listed in Fairfax County but is actually located in the center of the City of Falls Church.

 

Holograph's maps show, in many cases, independent cities as small, differently colored enclaves within larger counties. I assume he codes recoveries according to how NGS lists them, even when NGS datasheets are incorrect.

 

For a while I was submitting county corrections that I had identified to NGS, but there seemed to be little interest in correcting this aspect of the database, so I gave up and just add it to the narrative if I file a recovery report.

 

Below are Virginia's independent cities, or at least the ones that NGS uses in its coding.

 

ArtMan

 

Virginia Independent Cities

ALEXANDRIA

BEDFORD

BRISTOL

BUENA VISTA

CHARLOTTESVILLE

CHESAPEAKE

CLIFTON FORGE

COLONIAL HGTS

COVINGTON

DANVILLE

EMPORIA

FAIRFAX

FALLS CHURCH

FRANKLIN

FREDERICKSBURG

GALAX

HAMPTON

HARRISONBURG

HOPEWELL

LEXINGTON

LYNCHBURG

MANASSAS

MANASSAS PARK

MARTINSVILLE

NANSEMOND

NEWPORT NEWS

NORFOLK

NORTON

PETERSBURG

POQUOSON

PORTSMOUTH

RADFORD

RICHMOND

ROANOKE

SALEM

SOUTH BOSTON

STAUNTON

SUFFOLK

VIRGINIA BEACH

WAYNESBORO

WILLIAMSBURG

WINCHESTER

[holograph]

...

Holograph's maps show, in many cases, independent cities as small, differently colored enclaves within larger counties. I assume he codes recoveries according to how NGS lists them, even when NGS datasheets are incorrect.

...

Yes, they are placed according to the state and county named on the datasheet. The county and city boundaries on the map are based on the Census Bureau Tiger/Line dataset. Although the Tiger/Line spatial data is generally accurate, it isn't accurate down to the cm level, so it is risky to try to assign points based on coordinates. Also, the vast majority of points are scaled coordinates, so that would make it even riskier.

 

Other states have a few independent cities (Baltimore, MD, St. Louis, MO, Carson City, NV, and perhaps a few others), but most states just have counties. Alaska has boroughs, but Alaska is unique in several ways.

 

The independent cities of Virginia don't show up well, even at maximum zoom, but they are there. For example, here is an extreme zoom of Virginia in the Washington, DC, region. Unfortunately, I can't upload that level of detail to the map browser because there is no ability to increase detail in only a single region, and to provide that level of detail for the entire country would require GB of image tiles.

 

Edited June 3, 2009 by holograph

[GH55]

Back again after a couple of years off, with 2 NGS recoveries. (another one destroyed, but that hasn't been submitted, yet).

 

Thanks for keeping this updated.

[+seventhings]

holograph -

 

Many thanks for your great work on the stats and maps.

 

Will

 

p.s. With respect to the coloring-in of counties (GEOCAC NGS recovery reports by county), have you ever compiled a list of how many counties each GEOCAC reporter has? Or, better yet, a compilation of "number of first GEOCAC NGS recovery in county, by GEOCAC reporter"?

w

[+Harry Dolphin]

Yes, they are placed according to the state and county named on the datasheet. The county and city boundaries on the map are based on the Census Bureau Tiger/Line dataset. Although the Tiger/Line spatial data is generally accurate, it isn't accurate down to the cm level, so it is risky to try to assign points based on coordinates. Also, the vast majority of points are scaled coordinates, so that would make it even riskier.

 

For the most part, I can figure the city from the Topo maps. Perhaps, if the independant city is newer than the mark, the old county designation carries through. I could understand why NGS wouldn't bother trying to update. I couldn't find any listed in Bristol, or Norton, for instance. They all seem to be listed as Washington, or Wise county. I would suspect that the Roanoke municipal building is in Roanoke, but it's probably listed as Roanoke County.

That'll teach me to try to go on a coloring spree! Oh, well. Ignore the cities, and go for counties! And that will save wear and tear on my travelling companions.

[+shorbird]

Does anyone print holograph's maps? I used to until last month, when all at once I'd get the left sidebar with blank on the rest of the page. Does anyone have any ideas on how this can be fixed? Holograph has not changed his webpage.

[andylphoto]

Thanks again for your work, Holograph. It's nice to see the statistics & maps. For me, it's a bit of a "reward" for our efforts--seeing our recoveries noted like this. I was actually a bit surprised when viewing the maps this month. I'm one of the only active benchmark hunters in the area, and saw four counties colored with recent recoveries in Upper Michigan.

 

I looked back through my logs and found that I indeed had submitted recoveries from four counties. I also enjoyed re-reading several of my logs--a couple of previously not found stations, one the first recovery on a station monumented ten years ago, one with significant description changes due to a highway realignment, and one I had briefly looked for on two prior occasions, finally found sans witness post under about a foot of dirt.

 

Looking forward to more benchmarking!

[+Harry Dolphin]

Map coloring spree has ended. Probably too late for the next update. My sister found caches in nine new states (including the D of C). Andy Bear and I picked up five new states.

Should be three new counties colored in for holograph's map: Pulaksi and Wise, Virginia, and Pike, Kentucky. Could not find the benchmarks we hunted in Lechter, Kentucky. Oh, well. Also found some in The City of Roanoke, and the City of Salem, but those will probably show up as Roanoke County. Oh, well. Had a great trip!