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Highest, lowest, other extremes


ArtMan

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Somewhere in the US some station in the NGS database is the highest in elevation, the lowest, farthest east, north, etc.

 

I propose we discover them, and your nominations go right here in this forum.

 

Since I am proposing this, I will get things started and set out a couple of rules.

 

Station must be in the NGS database and must be on land, i.e., not buoys, lightships, etc. Piers and such connected to land are OK.

 

Nominees accepted for both continental 48 states and all states including Alaska and Hawaii.

 

To start things off, I nominate AA0919 (872 4557 TIDAL 1) at N24°32'43" in Key West, FL, as the southernmost mark in the continental US.

 

Your contributions welcome, benchmarkers!

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quote:
Originally posted by survey tech:

The only one of these I have visited is Dayton/Harris (GS0206) which is the lowest official point at -254.35 per the latest adjustment.


 

What about GS0236? According to the description it is -254.75 ft. ever so slightly lower than Dayton/Harris. icon_smile.gif I'd love to get the chance to do either or both of them.

 

The furthest east, not counting the Alaskan islands, I found in the database was PD0792, but it's outside the US border according to the Tiger Maps. The easternmost within the US is PD0694, located on a peninsula up in Maine.

 

I'm not lost!

I just don't know where I am.

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quote:
Originally posted by survey tech:

The only one of these I have visited is Dayton/Harris (GS0206) which is the lowest official point at -254.35 per the latest adjustment.


 

What about GS0236? According to the description it is -254.75 ft. ever so slightly lower than Dayton/Harris. icon_smile.gif I'd love to get the chance to do either or both of them.

 

The furthest east, not counting the Alaskan islands, I found in the database was PD0792, but it's outside the US border according to the Tiger Maps. The easternmost within the US is PD0694, located on a peninsula up in Maine.

 

I'm not lost!

I just don't know where I am.

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EASTPORT MAINE, I BELIEVE, BOAST THE EASTERN MOST BENCHMARK IN THE USA AT N44 54 .271 W 66 59 012(NAD 83). RE: PD1179. AS OF THIS LOG, NO CACHER HAS DISCOVERED THIS BENCHMARK.WHEN YOU DO, PLEASE PROVIDE A SERIES OF PICTURES OF THE EASTPORT AREA AS IT IS A PLACE I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO VISIT BUT CAN'T FIND THE TIME. THANKS MICKYD

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quote:
Originally posted by MICKYD:

EASTPORT MAINE, I BELIEVE, BOAST THE EASTERN MOST


 

If I remember correctly, Eastport is considered the easternmost city in the U.S. West Quoddy Head (see previous post on this thread) is the easternmost point in the U.S. It is interesting that the easternmost point has the name "West" in it. Quoddy Head is over the border in Canada and there is an inlet that runs between them.

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... but actually in Canada!

quote:
Originally posted by MICKYD:

EASTPORT MAINE, I BELIEVE, BOAST THE EASTERN MOST BENCHMARK IN THE USA AT N44 54 .271 W 66 59 012(NAD 83). RE: PD1179. AS OF THIS LOG, NO CACHER HAS DISCOVERED THIS BENCHMARK.WHEN YOU DO, PLEASE PROVIDE A SERIES OF PICTURES OF THE EASTPORT AREA AS IT IS A PLACE I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO VISIT BUT CAN'T FIND THE TIME. THANKS MICKYD


PD0792 is at N 44 56.307 W 66 55.154 (NAD 83), a bit further east than PD1179. I don't know if PD0792 is the easternmost in the database, or not, but it's the furthest I could find.

 

25021_1200.gif

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Using the NGS web site you can locate survey stations by means of a map interface. It's a little tricky to use, and will drive you crazy waiting for page redisplays on a dial-up connection, but once mastered it can be of tremendous value.

 

For example, to get my southernmost site, I plugged in Key West, which having been there many years ago I knew to be the southernmost point in the lower 48. Then, after displaying the stations, I could visually see the likely candidates. Checking the datasheets for latitude provided confirmation.

 

(Don't be afraid to use the Help button to the right of the map; it's a pretty good guide to some of the non-intiutive aspects of the system. Once you master it, you won't want to be without it. Hint: retrieval of the datasheets is pretty slow. Use geocaching.com for that. Call up one datasheet and just manually replace the PID in the URL.)

 

[This message was edited by ArtMan on August 26, 2002 at 05:12 PM.]

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quote:
Originally posted by MICKYD:

EASTPORT MAINE, I BELIEVE, BOAST THE EASTERN MOST BENCHMARK IN THE USA AT N44 54 .271 W 66 59 012(NAD 83). RE: PD1179. AS OF THIS LOG, NO CACHER HAS DISCOVERED THIS BENCHMARK.WHEN YOU DO, PLEASE PROVIDE A SERIES OF PICTURES OF THE EASTPORT AREA AS IT IS A PLACE I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO VISIT BUT CAN'T FIND THE TIME. THANKS MICKYD


 

I haven't done any benchmarks yet, but this one would be fun to try. It is a nice area and if you go, definately visit Quoddy Head! It a a truly remarkable area. I try to make it out at least once or twice a year, but have not made it yet this year!!!

 

As far as locations, not benchmarks, furthest East, Eastport seems to get recognition, but Lubec (apx. 4 miles South) shows up on my map as being futher East. It may be Eastport is the CITY that's furthest East. Quoddy Head is part of Lubec, but even the main part of town is further East than Eastport.

 

PD0792 is in Canada, but listed under Washington county, Maine - wonder why that is??? I Might want to go there and check that out too!

 

I'll look into the details of the benchmarks you've posted and if you guys want to give any advice I might try it out soon.

 

Me Fail English? That's Unpossible!

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It sure does look like West Quoddy Head light is the eastern most benchmark in the USA. Now all we need is one of you Mainer's to go and verify and take a picture for us all to see. I would love to be there with you as the rock bound coast of Maine is my all time best place to be. thanks MICKYD ( a transplanted Down Easter)

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quote:
Originally posted by MICKYD:

It sure does look like West Quoddy Head light is the eastern most benchmark in the USA. Now all we need is one of you Mainer's to go and verify and take a picture for us all to see.


 

I'm still looking into attempting a few in this area. I've been wanting to get back out here to take a few pictures of this area for a Maine slide show / screensaver I'm working on, I have 114 pictures so far but none from Quoddy Head area. Quoddy Head is famous for heavy fog so it's hard to get decent pictures on any given day.

 

Looking at other marks in the area, the info on the West Lubec Channel Light page and verifying it's location via satellite, I see it's one of those lighthouses that are on a rock not much bigger than the lighthouse itself and 1/4 mile offshore. My question is what do you benchmarkers consider an appropriate find? Can I take a picture from shore if it's not too far away, or should I not log unless I can make it out to the lighthouse? I would not question this with any cache, but am not sure since the actual mark is the finial, not a hard to spot survey disk or ammo box. I am not an avid swimmer in 50º water, so unless I can enlist a local sailor to take me out I may not make it.

 

Money doesn't grow on trees, but there is cache in the woods.

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BRDAD, I think you should negotiate with one of the local lobsterman to take you out to the Lubec channel light.It should take not much more than a six pack to get the job done.At any rate, even a picture from shore will should be sufficient for all our tastes.I wonder if there are any old cachers out there who remember Campobello island and who lived there and what happen on the island. But that is a story for another day.Good hunting and we will be watching for your log. thanks MICKYD

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TC0845. There are a couple of others to the north, however based upon the link to the map link provided earlier, they appear to be in Canada, not the US.

 

This is one of a string of boundry markers for us/ca, I belive the other two are as well, however since they appear to be in Canada, I would say it disqualifies them.

 

That's just my opinion. YOu are welcome to your own.

 

-Rusty

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Despite every setback a day could have, including having to drive 150 miles roundtrip in the opposite direction before heading to the location, forgetting my camera, batteries, only having one day instead of the two I was shooting for, several areas of road construction, and even worse - I brought a pile of scrap paper instead of the pile of benchmark pages I intended to bring! I did not made it to Lubec until 1 PM.

 

Fortunately, I had 400+ waypoints of the area, including a bunch of benchmarks. So I kind of winged it. For nearly a weeks wages at the local convinience store, I aquired a disposable camera and batteries and other things I left home. Then I headed to the Lubec pier and searched for nearest waypoints. I didn't do them all, but I did log these:

 

PD0706

PD0753

PD0755

PD0756

 

I then attempted PD0709, read my note and picture for details.

 

From there, I headed south to Quoddy Head. Everything was as I remembered, and logged the easternmost benchmark, PD0694.

 

Having only one benchmark I really wanted to check out, which was an old fire tower, I took a detour and walked the trails in Quoddy Head State Park. Every time I come here I like it more - do not miss it if you ever come. I took a few pictures from there, if you are interested, I will have the pictures at this location for a week or so:

Quoddy Head pictures (May not be up until 9/10 sometime)

 

I made it to the fire tower, benchmark PD0721 about an hour before sunset, and took the two remaining pictures on my camera. From there I walked back to my car and headed home. I almost attempted one multicache to top the day off, but when I got within a qurter mile of the first stage, I decided it was too late. All in all, a perfect day!

 

When life gives you urine, make urinade.

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BRDAD: What great pictures of the West Quoddy Head area. I can almost smell the salt in the air and the sea weed at low tide.Thanks for sharing this and inspite of what appeared to be a bad start on your part, you certainly came thru in flying colors.My Maine Gazetteer is worn out and torn from flipping thru the pages looking at places I would rather be.

Thanks again. MICKYD

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quote:
Originally posted by MICKYD:

My Maine Gazetteer is worn out and torn from flipping thru the pages looking at places I would rather be.


 

I go through at least one of them a year! I often stare at it for hours like a kid looking at a Toys-R-Us catalog 2 weeks before christmas!

 

This topic is about extremes, I'm considering having Maine extremes as a longer-term goal now. I allready have the east, so I'll need north, south, west, highest and lowest... Highest sounds easy enough, but how would one go about finding the lowest benchmark in the state? Sure there are thousands on benchmarks at or near sea level, not sure as we have any land below sea level...

 

Some days you're the dog, and some days you're the hydrant.

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Some years back I was working in Jerusalem and frequently visited Jericho (world's oldest city, they claim) and the Dead Sea. Lowest place on earth. I wonder if there are any survey stations to log there.

 

Why wonder? Here are a couple of sites that generally describe the control network in Israel.

 

http://www.mapi.gov.il/english_1/mapping/yohanan.html

 

http://www.mapi.gov.il/english_1/mapping/gershon.html

 

The latter site includes a reference to this site, "which displays various kinds of data and directs the applicant to appropriate files." However, I was unable to connect to the site. One hopes this is just a temporary problem.

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