Photos of Survey markers and Witness Posts

1.7k · March 10, 2003

With the generous contributions of photographs and explanations from all you geocachers, we have put together a nice web page showing what survey markers and witness posts look like.

Still accepting photos of different looking items.....

http://www.dustyjacket.com/benchmarks.html

Enjoy..........

DustyJacket

...If life was fair, a banana split would cure cancer.

1.7k · March 11, 2003

Just added a chiseled cross (pretty dark photo) and a PK nail.

Thanks for adding to our knowledge, Tom.

DustyJacket

...If life was fair, a banana split would cure cancer.

March 11, 2003

For the historically inclined, their is an interesting story about the recent recovery and preservation of one of those original pre-1900 baselines, mentioned in the text on Dusty's page, this one being from 1848. Go to the POB magazine website, click on archives, type in "bodie island" in the search box, and the story will come up.

5.3k · March 11, 2003

Nice collection, dustyjacket! It'll be interesting to see what we can build that into...

Max

Often wrong but seldom in doubt

March 11, 2003

Thanks dusty ... just what the "green" benchmark hunter needs

March 11, 2003

I just posted a witness post for AE8944, (have yet to find the marker itself though, will have to wait for some snow melt) I have also posted a couple of witness posts for ON0783. None of those are ledgible in the pictures though. At the same time they can give a sense of what to look for in the ditches and along the highways.

March 12, 2003

Thanks for the information! This will be very helpful.

1.4k · March 12, 2003

Hey Dusty, feel free to add this one to your collection:

http://img.Groundspeak.com/cache/log/1011160_300.JPG

It marks the Jefferson County Sewer here in Birmingham, AL. Someone here expalined that it was an offset marker. Cheers!

Jeff

http://www.StarsFellOnAlabama.com

http://www.NotAChance.com

If you hide it, they will come....

1.7k · March 12, 2003

Just added some more to the page.

Thanks to all contributors.

Check out the one from the 19th century on the Eads bridge.

DustyJacket

...If life was fair, a banana split would cure cancer.

1.7k · March 14, 2003

The page is getting a bit long.....

I would appreciate any suggestions on how to re-organize it. Perhaps into multiple pages.

Then again, if we have pretty much reached the end of the major varieties, maybe we are done.

DustyJacket

...If life was fair, a banana split would cure cancer.

March 16, 2003

Dusty - I'm new to this, found my first NGS marker today in fact, but your site is excellent. I have bookmarked it for future reference. Thanks!

Catcher24

"You see, you spend a good deal of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time." Jim Bouton

1.7k · March 23, 2003

Bump

DustyJacket

...If life was fair, a banana split would cure cancer.

1.7k · March 30, 2003

Thanks to those who've E-mailed photos in the last we or so.

I hope to get some time to add a few to the photo page, but right now it is a little busy.

DustyJacket

Not all those that wander are lost. But in my case...

1.7k · April 6, 2003

I added british Marker and the currently popular orange Carsonite Witness Post.

Thanks for everyone sending the photos of more local governments' markers. Unfortunately, I've made the decision not to post each and every states' marker type (and cities' as well) unless it is unusual. Otherwise the page would get huge.

Maybe if I break my leg caching or benchmarking this summer, I'd have the time to redo the page, and move all local markers to a new page. I'll save those photos until I do that.

DustyJacket

Not all those that wander are lost. But in my case...

April 7, 2003

We happened across http://www.bantha.org/~padme/pics/Geocaching-2003-04-06-012.jpg in Portsmouth, NH today (well, yesterday) between some genuine benchmarks. Anyone know more about it? I suppose it was placed by the folks at http://www.wright-pierce.com/ -- so I guess it's one of many varieties of private marker?

2.3k · April 7, 2003

Hey DustyJacket-If you want to see what a concrete monument ripped out of the ground looks like, check out DU2215, I just found it today, laying there on its side...

1.7k · April 7, 2003

Team 360 - I used it on the page.

Thanks.

DustyJacket

Not all those that wander are lost. But in my case...

April 10, 2003

Keep building that page. It is a great reference.

She said, "Give up caching, or don't come home." Dang I am gonna miss her!

April 11, 2003

Nice job Dusty, I bookmarked it, once it drys out and warms up (drys up, warms out?) here I'm going to check out a 'tidal' benchmark, curious to see if it's a different physical marker or just designation. Maybe I'll actually finish a roll of film doing it and scan them too.

May 2, 2003

Here's one I came acrossed in the Arizona desert last weekend. I tried looking it up on the benchmarking site but there is no zip code for the area and the coordinate search doesn't seem to be working.

-----------

Bill

Jeeps Only!

http://www.jeepsonly.com

------------------------

May 2, 2003

This is almost certainly a cadstral marker, not a geodetic marker. Its very typical of those in Arizona. Remember, geodetic markers are nearly always set with a view toward extreme permanence and solidity, which would not be the case here, with this one sticking up so precariously.

May 3, 2003

I've seen a few like this in Arizona that were marked as traverse points. Each was marked that it was with the Township and Range it was in and one of a series of similar marks - i.e. 4 of 12. Each one was set in a similar fashion to the one you found, up about 12 inches and in a pile of rocks.

The marks I found were in the Virgin River Gorge between Mesquite Nevada and St. George Utah near some caches.

Keep on Caching!

- Kewaneh

1.7k · June 7, 2003

I just added the latest contributions:

a rivet

a USDA marker

A BLM marker

A Forest Service marker

DustyJacket

Not all those that wander are lost. But in my case...

June 11, 2003

Thanx for making this page available!

1.7k · June 11, 2003

A second type of pipe cap marker is coming, probablye LATE tonight - it is really neat.

DustyJacket

Not all those that wander are lost. But in my case...

June 11, 2003

This one has troubled me some because it looks to me more like a sewer or maintenence access pipe with no real NGS markings on it, but based on the description and the fluerescent orange paint on it, I take it to be the marker in the description.

Am I just embarrassing myself here?

HT2261

Team Kender - "The Sun is coming up!" "No, the horizon is going down."

4.4k · June 11, 2003

This is one of the most interesting ones I have found. http://img.Groundspeak.com/benchmark/lg/24709_100.jpg

THE MOST DANGEROUS ANIMAL IN THE FOREST DOES NOT EVEN LIVE THERE*********WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS*GEOTRYAGAIN **1803-2003 "LOUSIANA PURCHASE" 200TH ANNIVERSARY AND THE "LEWIS AND CLARK EXPADITION" http://www.lapurchase.org http://www.msnusers.com/MissouriTrails

1.7k · June 11, 2003

Just added a second type of pipe cap, a reference "block" and a marker and survey post set in stone.......

Thanks to all who contribute.

DustyJacket

Not all those that wander are lost. But in my case...

July 14, 2003

Time to bump this one up again.

I recently found a couple of River Survey Pipe Caps: PID JD2637 & PID JC0574.

July 14, 2003

There are some rare early metal BMs in Utah, cross-marked copper bolts from 1880s-1890s (I have a picture of one for http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.asp?PID=LP0487 , this one is from 1887, the photo is not super but feel free to use it in lieu of anything better), and triangle-marked copper bolts with letter designations from 1890s (apparently none has been documented by geobenchmakers yet, one is thought to be destroyed, but a couple of them may still exist around Salt Lake)

July 15, 2003

Just sent you a couple pics of some Bearing Tree signs.

Found them this evening near a benchmark. I cannot find the BM in the database though, so I cannot log it.

Bearing Tree

Benchmark

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have never been lost. Been awful confused for a few days, but never lost!

[This message was edited by Bilder on July 16, 2003 at 12:23 AM.]

1.5k · July 16, 2003

You do not have a Bench Mark, you have a section corner. A section corner defines land. Bearing trees are legal references to the section corner.

July 16, 2003

Thanks for the clarification Elcamino.

That would explain why it is not in the database.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have never been lost. Been awful confused for a few days, but never lost!

2.7k · July 16, 2003

There are some nice diagrams of different types of disks (reference, azimuth, magnetic, etc.) in an NGS technical report on Horizongal Control that you can look at in Adobe by clicking here. Go about 1/3 of the way down to see Figure 3a (12 USCGS types) and Figure 3b (8 NGS types and 1 NOS type).

1.4k · July 16, 2003

That's a cool link Black Dog... thanks for posting it! The old paper mentions that witness posts/signs are available to anyone that is willing to place them. I wonder if that is still the case. I would gladly place them near marks that don't have them. DaveD, are these still available to those of us that are willing to install them?

Jeff

http://www.StarsFellOnAlabama.com

http://www.NotAChance.com

If you hide it, they will come....

July 17, 2003

I am curious to see DaveD's answer to your question about setting witness posts. One time I asked Deb Brown at NGS via e-mail if I could get some posts to set by control points I find. She replied that they do not do that because of the liability of having non-NGS personnel pounding posts into the ground and possibly damaging underground utilities.

July 18, 2003

Dusty I sent you a photo of QZ0572,,a different type of benchmark> I dont see it with your others, aren't you interested in this one? If you did not recieve it let me know I will resend it,,I think it is a nice one,,a benchmark that one can go and camp in. What could be better, benchmark hunting and camping out, in the benchmark!

1.7k · July 19, 2003

Montana - I have been busy, so it has taken me this long to get several "donations" added to this we page, but I am done, now.

Many folks don't add their GeoCaching.com ID to the message, so I don't know which photo(s) or text are yours.

If anyone sees that I need to change a name to a user ID, just let me know.

I added a canal mark, a third type og pipe cap, a bearing tree, and mark "building" and more.

See:

DustyJacket

Not all those that wander are lost. But in my case...

1.7k · July 19, 2003

Some of the new pictures are HUGE when you click on the thumbnails, like the cloth mark/signal.

If people have problems loading them, please let me know and I'll shrink them down.

I have a cable modem, so it doesn't cause me problems....

Thanks.

And thanks to all of you that have donated pictures and explanations. this started out as a small page to show folks what a witness post looked like, and has really grown.

DustyJacket

Not all those that wander are lost. But in my case...

1.7k · July 19, 2003

I see the URL thing didn't work, 2 posts obove this, so I'll just post it here:

Photos of Witness Posts and Survey Marks http://www.dustyjacket.com/benchmarks.html

DustyJacket

Not all those that wander are lost. But in my case...

1.7k · August 2, 2003

Just giving this a little bump

DustyJacket

Not all those that wander are lost. But in my case...

1.7k · August 17, 2003

I just added a brass plug, a Disney marker, a screw, and several misc markers to the end of the page.

Thanks to all who contributed.

http://www.dustyjacket.com/benchmarks.html

DustyJacket

Not all those that wander are lost. But in my case...

1.7k · August 17, 2003

I just added a really NEAT iron obilisk at the US-Canada border.

Funny, this web page started when I saw my first witness post, and realized that many of us had never seen them and were confused by all the references to them.

I think I may need to reorganize it as now the page is getting very long.

Keep those photos and text coming, please.

If they are something new, I;ll add them when I can.

DustyJacket

Not all those that wander are lost. But in my case...

1.7k · August 17, 2003

Alo, some of the photos are unclear or drk.

If you get a better photo of the same type of marker, I'd be happy to add that as well.

Thanks.

DustyJacket

Not all those that wander are lost. But in my case...

August 20, 2003

If I understand correctly what you're doing, I may have one to add.

On a recent trip to the Smoky Mountains, I inadvertantly discovered a North Carolina Geodetic Survey marker, at Newfound Gap.

Would you like me to send it?

KYPoliceStudent

~KG4ZEP

August 20, 2003

Okay, I have found a manhole cover as a benchmark in Apple Valley, CA, see picture at: http://img.Groundspeak.com/benchmark/lg/50331_100.jpg

And a visual benchmark on a telephone pole in the Mojave Desert in CA, see picture at: http://img.Groundspeak.com/benchmark/lg/50336_100.jpg

HappyFrog

September 24, 2003

About time for a BUMP!

Everybody loves benchmarks more!

September 24, 2003

I was talking with a fellow cacher last Saturday and he told me of finding a sign for a witness tree. I specifically asked him about the wording and he said it actually said "witness tree" and was attached to a tree. I've never seen any mention of anything like that here so I thought I'd mention it. I asked for pictures but he didn't take any. It was down in Arkansas somewhere.

September 24, 2003

Hey DustyJacket, I hope someday you get a chance to log this TB or this one. I'm hoping they make it the States so lots of Benchmarkers will get a chance to see them!

-Donna G

September 24, 2003

There used to help relocate the item. Usually ther are 3 or 4 to a benchmark or section etc. Not really used much anymore either. Most counties or other govt. entity will set other survey markers for "witness trees"

quote:
Originally posted by RogBarn:
I was talking with a fellow cacher last Saturday and he told me of finding a sign for a witness tree. I specifically asked him about the wording and he said it actually said "witness tree" and was attached to a tree. I've never seen any mention of anything like that here so I thought I'd mention it. I asked for pictures but he didn't take any. It was down in Arkansas somewhere.

Photos of Survey markers and Witness Posts

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