What to do?

[+Joe Smith]

Hello all,

 

I was looking at a topo map of my home town and I noticed a BM about 3 blocks from my house, marked BM 1031. It is an area I know very well. I searched online here and found nothing. Then I checked the area and found a strange patch of grass about the size of a concrete monument. I dug a bit and found nothing. But there is a chunk of stone with a round side. These two things make me think it was here. The area is almost on a gravel road and is about 30 feet from the fence of the Mars Swimming Pool. It could've been destroyed. I checked with the local office and found nothing. Here is the Topo

 

and here is the Sat Photo

 

It is (I think) at the northeast corner of a dirt turnaround. South of some bushes by the pool (you can see the main pool, and the off-shoot kiddie pool)

 

Thanks for all your help.

 

Brian

[+raouljan]

BM1031'DESCRIBED BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1954 (HSC)

BM1031'THE STATION IS LOCATED ABOUT 5 MILES NORTHWEST OF WARRENTON,

BM1031'11 MILES SOUTHEAST OF GIDDINGS, 7 MILES EAST OF WARDA AND

BM1031'1.8 MILES NORTHEAST OF NECHANITZ. IT IS IN THE NORTHWEST

BM1031'CORNER OF A CHURCH YARD AND 378 FEET NORTHWEST OF A

BM1031'T-INTERSECTION AT THE SOUTHEAST CORNER OF THE CHURCH YARD.

BM1031'THE MARK IS ON PROPERTY OWNED BY THE LUTHERAN CHURCH.

 

Does that sound close?

 

>Personally Responsible for the Recovery of .00244% of the Benchmark Database!<--watch this number!

[boundsgoer]

"BM 1031" as shown on the quad map indicates there is a bench mark there with the elevation shown to the nearest foot. It is not the PID. When I search for BM1031 on the NGS site, I get a data sheet for a horizontal control marker in Texas.

 

USGS quads generally show a bench mark with an "X", the letters "BM" and the elevation to the nearest foot. Horizontal control is depicted with a triangle and the station name. Of course, we all know that not all horizontal and vertical control is shown on the quads.

 

To find the data sheet for that particular bench mark, you can search NGS using the approximate Lat/Long obtained from scaling or your handheld.

[+headmj]

It is not unusual for benchmarks on topo maps to not be listed in the NGS records. The marks are used for map making and are maintained in paper form by USGS.

[+Udink]

This is probably the benchmark listed on the topo map, though it may also be this one, and it appears you have found both already. Since the reference to the BM is in parentheses, that indicates that it is not the actual location of the benchmark. When a benchmark appears in a small town like this, they often place the reference to it in parentheses near the town name, as there isn't room to place an "X" and the elevation at the actual location on the map.

[+rogbarn]

quote:

---

Originally posted by kc7feq:

http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.asp?PID=KY0117 is probably the benchmark listed on the topo map, though it may also be http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.asp?PID=KY0116, and it appears you have found both already. Since the reference to the BM is in parentheses, that indicates that it is not the actual location of the benchmark. When a benchmark appears in a small town like this, they often place the reference to it in parentheses near the town name, as there isn't room to place an "X" and the elevation at the actual location on the map.

---

 

I haven't heard that they will sometimes put a benchmark indication in parentheses when there isn't room on the map. Interesting.

 

As for the two benchmarks that kc7feq lists, I would suspect the second one he mentions (KY0116) since it was monumented by the USGS and they would be much more likely to put their own points on a map. Also, the elevation matches before it was superseded by NAVD 88 (see original datasheet here)

[+Joe Smith]

Thanks everyone for all your help. It's a shame though, I wanted to find another one. Thanks!

 

Brian

[+GEO*Trailblazer 1]

The earliest form of benchmarks were hand carved stones go to your local County Courthouse look at the survey records for that section they have them all the way back to the 1st surveys made see if you can take the dimensions from the stone to compare them with the records of fact in the Courthouse. If this is a stone and not a chunk of cement. Your local County surveyor will know for sure. If you do not want to go that route then look it up in the records of survey's books.The old stones are the hardest to find!!!

 

When all else fails Geotry again.