Frog

[Lyra]

Looking for one that's probably gone in light of the fact that the RR tracks were removed, at least in part, long ago. However, the official description is:

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DESCRIBED BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1935 AT MARTINSVILLE. AT MARTINSVILLE, HENRY COUNTY, ABOUT 0.5 MILES NORTHWEST OF THE DANVILLE AND WESTERN RAILWAY STATION, 10 FEET WEST OF THE STATION SIGN AT MARTINSVILLE JUNCTION, ABOUT 90 YARDS WEST OF A WATER TANK, AND 23.6 FEET NORTH OF A FROG. A STANDARD DISK, STAMPED W 59 1935 AND SET IN THE TOP OF A CONCRETE POST PROJECTING ABOUT 6 INCHES ABOVE GROUND. NOTE-- 0.5 MILE SE OF RR STATION RATHER THAN NW.

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23.6 feet north of a FROG??? Couldn't they find a more permanent marker than an amphibious critter? Do they mean some king of monument celebrating the contributions of our web-footed friends (ooh, there's a pretty good tongue-in-cheek description of jeremy, but just a passing thought) to society as a whole? Were they referring to a polite, but very stantionany Frenchman?

 

My guess is that this is some reference to a surveying marker of some sort, the term of art which I've never encountered before.

 

Any clues?

[survey tech]

A frog point is where the tracks cross or split. If the tracks are gone one can only estimate where it might have been.

[+Centaur]

Aye. A "frog" is a railroad term for the junction or intersection of 2 rails.

-Centaur

[KSJohn]

I can remember a few years ago at the local fairgrounds. They were having some work done and had a surveyor there to do his thing. Not sure who's markers he was using, but on the description page he had it showed this mark to be x # of feet from a red ant hill. Well the mark was easily found and a bunch of us decided to check out the ant hill deal. The original description was from the early 50's and dang if that ant hill wasn't still there and still active.