Strangest BMs

[+RIclimber]

I found this:

DESCRIBED BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1913

STATION IS ON THE HIGHEST POINT OF A RIDGE ABOUT 1/8 MILE BACK OF BRISTOL LIGHTHOUSE ON WHAT APPEARS TO BE AN OLD BREASTWORK, ABOUT 100 METERS W OF THE ROAD TO BRISTOL. THE STATION IS MARKED WITH A SODA BOTTLE SURROUNDED BY GRAVEL BURIED IN THE GROUND.

[+DustyJacket]

In the old days, they used charcol circles, shells, etc......

 

DustyJacket

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

[+Kewaneh & Shark]

When the country was still young and the US Surveyor General was assigned with the task of sectioning and marking the newly aquired lands with the Public Land Survey System (PLSS), a grid type system of 36 square-mile townships for land management, pits & mounds of dirt and rocks and tree blazes (scarring) were commonly used to mark the township and section corners. I've read accounts where old tin cans and glass bottles full of chacoal and ashes burried at a described depth were also used along with the more traditional methods to define those corners.

 

Ideally, these first surveyors were to use something more permanent, but the situations and working conditions were not always ideal and they had to make due with what they had to accomplish the task at hand. The intent was to create an obviously man-made mark that, when found again, left little doubt to the finder that he was in fact looking at the corner.

 

Most of these section corners have since been replaced with a more permanent and identifiable mark, such as a concrete post or brasscap set in concrete, but occasionally, those unorthodox marks are still unearthed and found.

 

I've never heard of a USC&GS benchmark being marked in such a way. It would be an interesting 'find'. Did you find it? You don't mention where the mark is. Could you post the PID or a link to the benchmark page? I'd like to see the datasheet.

 

Keep on Caching!

- Kewaneh

[+RIclimber]

I might find it today,but I don't think I can get to it.

http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/

it's around (dms)n413831 w0711531

DESIGNATION-WEST 1861 'LW2352'

[survey tech]

I have never found one that old. If I did I would contact not only the NGS, but the Smithsonian as well. If by some long shot its still there, it should be treated as a Historic Landmark, and protected in its place by all means. The reason is mainly because there are virtually no civilized areas of the country that have remained unchanged since that time. The only exception to this in recent years, as far as geodetic markers are concerned, that I am aware of, is Baseline IV, recovered on Bodie Island North Carolina in 2000, which was set in 1848.

 

Incidentally, some may be interested to learn that the NGS, then known as The Coast Survey, became the first federal agency ever to employ a female professional, when director Alexander Bache hired astronomer Maria Mitchell in 1845. Congress ridiculed the agency, saying that any agency that included women must be wasting the taxpayers money, and even considered cutting its funding, but to his credit, Bache held the line, then went on to hire more women in the ensuing years, and as they say, the rest is history.

 

Heres a brief passage fom the NGS library, demonstrating the way the agency was viewed in the very early years.

 

"On November 2, 1858, The Committee of Twenty of the American Association for the Advancement of Science finished its report on the Coast Survey. Not surprisingly, it was highly complimentary to the Coast Survey. The conclusions of the Committee of Twenty were spiced with terms such as "a work as magnificent in its scientific aspects as it is valuable in those which are purely utilitarian...." The report went heavily into the details of the Coast Survey operations and recommended the adoption of twelve specific propositions concerning the future operations of the Survey. Propositions 10 was among the most important of these. It recommended that the Coast Survey carry its triangulation operations into the interior of the United States:

 

"10. Conclusive reasons, involving other weighty public interests no less than this, but connected also with the project of verifying in the happiest manner the geodesy of our extended and circuitous coast, conspire to render the triangulation of the great Appalachian chain of mountains a most desirable undertaking, and encourage the hope that our government will very early direct that most important work to be executed."

 

This concept was not new as Ferdinand Hassler was accused of wanting to carry the triangulation far into the interior in the Congressional investigation of 1842; but, here the most respected scientific association in the United States was placing the weight of its opinion behind conducting such operations. For his part, Superintendent Bache, under the guise of carrying surveys to the head of navigation of major waterways or of developing more accurate checks between points, had already pushed triangulation efforts into the interior whenever possible. However, Conclusion 10 still publicly tied geodetic operations to coastal surveys as opposed to developing a triangulation network for the control of major mapping and engineering efforts. The Nation was not yet ready for such visionary concepts."

 

[This message was edited by survey tech on March 16, 2003 at 05:10 PM.]

 

[This message was edited by survey tech on March 16, 2003 at 05:13 PM.]

[+GEO*Trailblazer 1]

www.lapurchase.org this is also a CGS Mark. And a upcoming Event Cache"THE STONE March 22,2003-GCD28A along with some other that are and have most of the things you are refering to.If you see my caches they are all based on the system somehow.................EH2910- My oldest 1855 bolt in building.

 

WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS *GEOTRYAGAIN* http://www.msnusers.com/MissouriTrails

 

[This message was edited by Trailblazer # 1 on March 16, 2003 at 06:28 PM.]

[+RIclimber]

My oldet find is what is left of a 1890 bolt LW2030 Designation: ROCKY MOUNTAIN 1890

[+happycycler]

This past weekend we found: JC0310 listed as a

quote:

---

MONEL-METAL RIVET]

---

. Unfortunately my photo is poor but the rivet head protrudes about 1/4 inch above the concrete.

 

BTW is MONEL the name of an alloy? or a brandname?

 

My oldest find (& probably favorite) is:JC0043 This is an 1882 bronze plate mounted in Eads Bridge in St. Louis, MO.

[+ScottJ]

Monel is an alloy of nickel, copper, iron and manganese. IIRC it's 68% nickel, I can't remember the proportions of the other metals.

 

It's very corrosion-resistant. I believe that from the earliest times all the way through WWII, military dog tags were made from Monel.

 

I'm not sure where the name originated.

 

--

Scott Johnson (ScottJ)

[Z15]

MONEL

[+happycycler]

It is great to have such wise & helpful folks to happily answer my newby questions!

 

Thank you ScottJ

& Thank you elcamino