+Klemmer Posted April 26, 2010 Share Posted April 26, 2010 (edited) PART I On 4/19/2010, after spending a great weekend benchmark hunting with 2oldfarts and southpawaz in the Laughlin NV area, I extended my stay in the area for some solo benchmark hunting. I had started with months of research (off and on), including wading through most of the large 1900 Annual Report from the US Coast & Geodetic Survey. Several years ago, several of us (2oldfarts, the fossillady and Klemmer) found a number of drill holes from 1899. My goal was finding more of them. My first target was BOUNDARY MON 137 CA NV (FS1143). The survey mark (technically a triangulation station) is not in the geocaching.com database, as it did not have a datasheet in the NGS database, and so was not "picked up" in the upload by Groundspeak around year 2000 or so. As far as the NGS database is concerned, it "exists", but is of the type that has "No Descriptive Text available", and therefore has no datasheet at this time. BUT - it does have coordinates in the NGS database, and (as Papa-Bear NYC showed some time ago), when a find is logged, then a datasheet will be "created". Thanks for the inspiration, Papa-Bear! More details and pictrues are posted at the related mark T 137 (FS1147) on geocaching.com. I previously logged T 137 as a find (in 2007). Since BOUNDARY MON 137 CA NV is not in the geocaching database at all, I used T 137 to "log " it. Yes, I logged a "second" find on T 137, which is actually for the boundary monument. All things considered, I'm OK with that ethically in this case (not as a general rule). In summary, I recovered the mark (drill hole under cairn) for the first time since it was drilled in 1899, as far as the NGS database is concerned. I have two more similar situations to be logged. I'll add Parts II and III on this thread when I can log the other two, plus few others on 4/19 (I'm still on the road today, working from a hotel room on my laptop). I have to rate 4/19/2010 as my most successful solo benchmarkhunting day to date. Hopefully, there are more to come! And I sure had fun! BOUNDARY MON 137 CA NV (FS1143) (note that the wood post used to be a redwood 4 X 4 in 1899) Klemmer (Larry) 4/25/2010 Edited April 26, 2010 by Klemmer & TeddyBearMama Quote Link to comment
+Klemmer Posted April 26, 2010 Author Share Posted April 26, 2010 PART II The next stop on my 4/19/2010 hunt for 1899 drill hoes was BOUNDARY MON 138 1/2 CA NV (FS1140). Yes, it is one thirty eight and one half. Like Part I above, it is not in the geocaching.com database, and is in the NGS database with "No Descriptive Text available". In this case, the description in the 1900 field report does not seem to be incorrectly attached to any other published NGS datasheet. Nice 4 wheel drive to parking, decent half mile hike, some pretty easy rock scrambling (a little climbing), and the cairn was in sight (with PVC pipe signal pole). Original wood pole pieces and support wires found (familiar from other marks in the area). A more complete report with lots of pictures (including of the actual drill hole) is located on the nearest geocaching.com benchmark page, for BOUNDARY MON 138 CA NV (FS1142) Another great find! More Parts to this report, hopefully tomorrow, time allowing. BOUNDARY MON 138 1/2 CA NV GPS with drill hole. GPS "Go To" set to NGS database coordinates. 5 feet difference from 1899 to consumer GPS accuracy. Pretty darn good result! Klemmer (Larry) 4/25/2010 Quote Link to comment
foxtrot_xray Posted April 28, 2010 Share Posted April 28, 2010 BOUNDARY MON 138 1/2 CA NV GPS with drill hole. GPS "Go To" set to NGS database coordinates. 5 feet difference from 1899 to consumer GPS accuracy. Pretty darn good result! ....I love our GPSs. Quote Link to comment
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