Death of a benchmark

[+TeamMoehrke]

Here's an unusal occurance. I work at a local newspaper, and today our staff covered the destruction of a water tower at a nearby university. The tower was painted with a lead-based paint, and it was determined that it was cheaper and easier to pull it down and build a new one than to try to sand-blast the paint off and capture it before it got loose in the environment.

 

As soon as I saw the photos I thought, "Shoot, that was a benchmark, I was going up that way tomorrow to photograph and log that one... now it's gone!"

 

But I snagged the photos to put on the benchmark page, to document the death of a benchmark. You can find them at http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.asp?PID=js4580

 

Now, my question is... should I log this as a find, or just a note? It was on my list, I've seen it before, just hadn't driven the 15 miles to photograph it myself. It was there, now it's not. Does it matter?

[+brdad]

Hmm, if they erect a new tower will it have the same PID as the old?

 

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

[+Web-ling]

I'd say go ahead and log it. Jeremy has stated in another thread that retroactive finds are allowed and even encouraged. So logging a watertower you've seen before would seem within reason, if you want to.

 

[survey tech]

In the present era, with the advent of GPS, the triangulation process has changed and intersection stations are no longer being created, so every steeple, water tower, etc., removed is a station gone forever. None have been created in 25 years or more that I know of, and probably more than 50% are now gone, so its only a matter of time until it finally comes down to the last survivor.

[+raouljan]

oh....oh....

What a catch....

To be able to log the last one!

oh....oh....

 

>Personally Responsible for the Recovery of .00217% of the Benchmark Database!<--watch this number!

[+rogbarn]

I agree. You saw it. You even have pictures (well, one at least) while it was still standing. You got it. Then, you can post a note after it to say it's gone.

 

That's a benchmark that will only ever have one found log.

[rusty0101]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Web-ling:

I'd say go ahead and log it. Jeremy has stated in another thread that retroactive finds are allowed and even encouraged. So logging a watertower you've seen before would seem within reason, if you want to.

 

http://img.Groundspeak.com/user/25021_1200.gif

---

 

That being the case, might I recomend someone who has been there, or has a picture of themselves with it in the background, logging the World Trade Center Towers. Last I looked, the benchmark had a log noting that something shoule be done with the record, perhaps marked as destroyed if that were possible.

 

While I have not been there, I have a very hard time believing that none of us were there in the years they existed.

 

-Rusty

[Zoboomafoo]

But a little differently.

 

I too, am a local newspaper reporter and one of the village's I cover tore down its old water tower earlier this year, which also was a benchmark. In fact, I witnessed it coming down also.

 

I've visited this tower every other Monday for the past two years now but only got interested in geocaching and benchmark hunting in the past few weeks.

 

Since it's so far past now I've chosen not to log it, but maybe I should? Maybe I should dig up the photos we shot of it as well?

 

Any thoughts?

[Willhoppy]

I'm new to this game. While looking up benchmarks in my area I noticed that two of the listed benchmarks were torn down while I was a child, but are still listed. One of them has had a railroad track built over it. Can anyone explain. I also found a new one by chance the other day while looking for a cache site. It is a county benchmark on a rebuilt rural bridge. Any help on these?

[+M&M]

It seems to me that this is a good concept for a new category to go along with found and not found. Perhaps it could be called Gone, but not forgotten.

 

It would cover those instances described in this thread. It would also indicate at a glance that the darn thing has definately disappeared.

 

My favorite example, as posted by bdgroves, is SY4578. There's plenty-o-proof of it's demise...BAM

[+SamLowrey]

Hysteria over lead based paint claims another victim.