City Benchmark: What do I do with it?

[+FolsomNatural]

Just found a City of Roseville, CA benchmark.

I don't see it in any databases.

 

How do I log it?

What do I do with it?

 

[+dukeofurl01]

I was just in Roseville about a week ago. I live in Chico, we're almost neighbors! The City of Chico also has a lot of benchmarks also. But they might as well be private. The only benchmarks that are loggable are ones from the National Geodetic Survey.

[AZcachemeister]

Just found a City of Roseville, CA benchmark.

I don't see it in any databases.

 

How do I log it?

What do I do with it?

 

The City of Roseville certainly has a database of their marks, and might be interested to know the one you found is OK. Other than telling them, you might make a waymark out of it. There is a specific category for this type of thing.

 

I was just in Roseville about a week ago. I live in Chico, we're almost neighbors! The City of Chico also has a lot of benchmarks also. But they might as well be private. The only benchmarks that are loggable are ones from the National Geodetic Survey.

 

More specifically (and precisely) marks that are IN THE NGS DATABASE, which has marks placed by a plethora of different agencies. Had the city done their survey work to the exacting standards needed, the mark you found could have been included in the database. In fact, their work might have been good enough, but they just didn't bother to submit it.

[+LSUFan]

The long answer is that the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) is responsible for what is called the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS). The NSRS consists of many different marks from many different agencies as AZCachemeister correctly stated. For a mark to be included in the NSRS, it has to meet certain standards and specifications (called bluebooking). Once a mark is bluebooked, then it can be included in the NSRS. The NGS then keeps up with all bluebooked marks (including the ones that the NGS actually placed themselves) in the NSRS, and these are the the marks you see on geocaching.com. However, the gc.com database is over 10 years old. There have been marks that have been bluebooked since then (thus aren't in the gc.com database) and marks that have been removed from the NSRS due to being destroyed (but will still show up in the gc.com database.

 

There are thousands of marks, from all kind of agencies, that have not been bluebooked......so they will not be in the NSRS........so they will not be listed on gc.com. You found one of these marks in Roseville. As AZCachemeister stated, you can log these marks not in the NSRS, on Waymarking.com. Here is a link, that I think is it: (Your geocaching log-in is the same for waymarkings site)

 

http://www.Waymarking.com/cat/details.aspx?f=1&guid=424f2581-a02d-4914-9bc8-8f4cafe02680&wst=9&kw=benchmarks&st=2

 

I know, that all of these government acronyms can sound alike, but it will come to you. Here is a better explanation from the NGS website.

 

Survey Marks and a National Coordinate System

 

The common sets of reference points used today are the survey marks or starting points from which surveyors work to ensure accurate and consistent surveys across the nation. Most of these survey marks are accurate either horizontally or vertically. A smaller number have data in both horizontal and vertical dimensions. Today, the complete set of survey marks for the United States is known as the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS). These points serve as the foundation for property surveys, nautical charts, highway construction, wastewater facilities or any of the countless activities that require accurate geodetic information. The National Geodetic Survey defines and manages this national coordinate system, one of the most fundamental and necessary components underlying the nation’s infrastructure.

 

NOAA's National Geodetic Survey maintains a database of hundreds of thousands of geodetic control points with precise latitude and longitude coordinates and/or elevations in the National Spatial Reference System. Permanent in-ground monuments like this mark their position.

 

To identify the survey marks in the NSRS, the National Geodetic Survey has traditionally placed marks, or permanent monuments, where it determined precise latitude and longitude coordinates. These markers are brass or bronze disks (metals that sustain weathering) and are set in concrete or bedrock. Each mark is about 9 centimeters (about 3.5 inches) in diameter and has information about the National Geodetic Survey printed on its surface. Newer survey marks are either disks set in concrete or bedrock or long rods driven into the ground and covered with a metal plate to help ensure that they won't move and that people can not destroy or remove them.

 

Other federal, state, and local government agencies, as well as some private entities maintain thousands of geodetic reference stations that are also part of the NSRS. The National Geodetic Survey maintains the survey data for all these stations, as well as the data for its own stations, in a central database and makes it available for public access. The NSRS includes approximately 850,000 permanent markers nationwide.

Edited January 28, 2012 by LSUFan

[+Marcie/Eric]

I *am* a neighbor. Chico..neighbor... bleh... Thats an over an hour away!

 

Where exactly did you find it in Roseville?