No Benchmark was found with that Point ID (PID).

[topflitejr1]

I was in the Minneapolis/St.Paul area over the weekend. I wasn't there to Benchmark, but made mental notes of possible Intersection Stations to log when I got back. I noticed that many of the Survey Marks in the Ramsey and Washington County areas were not loggable on the Geocaching site and the message given was "No Benchmark was found with that Point ID (PID)". When you bring up the NGS datasheet on the particular Mark, everything about the Mark is listed with them being logged FOUND in all recoveries. In other words, no Marks that I looked up on the NGS Datasheets were listed as NOT FOUND or DESTROYED. Does the Geocac site randomly Archive some Marks for no reason? IE. DO5522 WESTOVER.

[TillaMurphs]

Hi topflitejr1,

 

The Geocaching database for benchmarks has not been updated in more than a decade. The Geocaching database is made from a very old "snapshot" of the NGS database.

 

Therefore, you won't find any newer marks in it.

 

For example, DO5522 WESTOVER was monumented in 2012 so it is too new to be included in the old Geocaching database.

 

Hope this helps.

[topflitejr1]

Tillamurphs,

 

I gave the wrong PID. It's actually DO5552, not DO5522. DO5552 was monumented in 1991.

[TillaMurphs]

topflite,

 

You have discovered the other problem with the Geocaching database. Not only is it outdated, but it also did not capture ALL of the NGS marks that were extant at the time - unfortunately.

 

It is really too bad that Geocaching does not update their benchmark database. However, the consensus around here is that there is zero chance of that ever happening.

 

Some folks log benchmarks that are not in the Geocaching database on Waymarking.com instead.

[kayakbird]

Tillamurphs,

 

I gave the wrong PID. It's actually DO5552, not DO5522. DO5552 was monumented in 1991.

 

All,

 

DO5552 may have been monumented in 1991, but I don't think that MNDOT submitted it to NGS until their 2012 recovery. The GSAK file that I built for Minnesota in I think the spring of 2011 does not have any DOXXXX PID's.

 

kayakbird

[topflitejr1]

Tillamurphs,

 

I gave the wrong PID. It's actually DO5552, not DO5522. DO5552 was monumented in 1991.

 

All,

 

DO5552 may have been monumented in 1991, but I don't think that MNDOT submitted it to NGS until their 2012 recovery. The GSAK file that I built for Minnesota in I think the spring of 2011 does not have any DOXXXX PID's.

 

kayakbird

Thanks Kayakbird and Tillamurphs for the info. I plan to make it out there to do some more serious Benchmarking in the future. Seems they do things a little differently out there.

Edited September 21, 2014 by topflitejr1

[Z15]

Keep in mind with government agencies, they are controlled by budgets and time lines. When the money runs out or the fiscal year expires, the work often stops, people retire, change jobs and new blood comes in and they do things differently. I know projects I worked on a the DOT got thrown in the trash when new management took over. Different priorities (often the result of elections), surveyors reassigned to different managers who assign the work and who have their own idea how to run things.

Edited September 21, 2014 by Z15

[kayakbird]

topflitejr1 & others,

 

If you are going to be working along the Mississippi River and like unique old (1898) marks, something over 200 MRC (Mississippi River Commission) will float to the top with a GSAK 'Placed By' MRC filter. And a few more will pop up if you do a full text filter for 'Missouri River Commission". Not sure if that is a typo, or if the MORC crew was put to work there when they ran out of river out my way.

 

Just found MORC COUNCIL near the Judith Landing. kayakbird

 

[foxtrot_xray]

Tillamurphs,

 

I gave the wrong PID. It's actually DO5552, not DO5522. DO5552 was monumented in 1991.

 

All,

 

DO5552 may have been monumented in 1991, but I don't think that MNDOT submitted it to NGS until their 2012 recovery. The GSAK file that I built for Minnesota in I think the spring of 2011 does not have any DOXXXX PID's.

 

kayakbird

 

KB hit it on the head. It was in the database, but marked as non-publishable, because of the reason "No description available" on the mark. Once the MNDOT submitted their recovery, the station got updated and became publishable.