Is there benchmarking outside of the USA and Canada, and can we start a benchmark in Australia is there isn’t one

[+James0116]

Hi,

 

we can’t seem to find any benchmarks is Australia on the geocaching website, even though there are survey markers all around  Australia

 

we were wondering if there was any benchmarking in Australia or is it only accessible in 2 countries,

 

if that is the case, can we start benchmarking in Australia or is this only reserved for North America,

 

thanks,

 

James0116

[+outdoorsoccer]

9 minutes ago, James0116 said:

Hi,

 

we can’t seem to find any benchmarks is Australia on the geocaching website, even though there are survey markers all around  Australia

 

we were wondering if there was any benchmarking in Australia or is it only accessible in 2 countries,

 

if that is the case, can we start benchmarking in Australia or is this only reserved for North America,

 

thanks,

 

James0116

Hi,

 

  I believe you can list the  benchmarks that you find in Australia on the Waymarking website.  There is even a category already created for that purpose.    Good luck and let us know how your BM adventures turnout. 

 

  Take care,

 

   ODS

[+elyob]

https://www.Waymarking.com/cat/details.aspx?f=1&guid=f3b5d2a8-9cbb-4d0a-9d55-519f2aed7cc0

https://www.Waymarking.com/cat/details.aspx?f=1&guid=18b359b3-84e5-42f9-bbcf-c40ae533c962

[+elyob]

Through Waymarking, you can do benchmarking in dozens of countries.

[Lynx Humble]

14 hours ago, James0116 said:

Hi,

 

we can’t seem to find any benchmarks is Australia on the geocaching website, even though there are survey markers all around  Australia

 

we were wondering if there was any benchmarking in Australia or is it only accessible in 2 countries,

 

if that is the case, can we start benchmarking in Australia or is this only reserved for North America,

 

thanks,

 

James0116

 

Benchmarking on the geocaching website is a USA only thing. None in Canada.

 

They introduced it in 2000 because there was so few geocache and never updated the database since. They don't even give smiley.

 

Like others said go take a look at Waymarking.

 

 

[+Goldenwattle]

16 hours ago, James0116 said:

Hi,

 

we can’t seem to find any benchmarks is Australia on the geocaching website, even though there are survey markers all around  Australia

 

we were wondering if there was any benchmarking in Australia or is it only accessible in 2 countries,

 

if that is the case, can we start benchmarking in Australia or is this only reserved for North America,

 

thanks,

 

James0116

I log trigs on an Australian site. They have other things too, but it's mainly the trigs that interest me. The site has been around for years. I am not sure if I should list the site here on this site. A couple of trigs I have logged. The church steeple is one too.

Edited October 6, 2020 by Goldenwattle

[+James0116]

Thank you everyone for your help

 

I have taken your feedback on and will use what you have said,

 

I am also going to contact Geocaching HQ for the possibility of benchmarking to be added to the Waymarking website st people can add benchmarks if they are available in their own country,

 

then people can collect that they have done a benchmark and get the special icon on their profile statistics 

 

thanks

 

James0116

[+cerberus1]

1 hour ago, James0116 said:

I am also going to contact Geocaching HQ for the possibility of benchmarking to be added to the Waymarking website st people can add benchmarks if they are available in their own country,

then people can collect that they have done a benchmark and get the special icon on their profile statistics 

 

Maybe you misunderstood, there already is the category in Waymarking.     

Waymarking  is owned by Groundspeak I guess, but it's not geocaching.

[kayakbird]

23 hours ago, Lynx Humble said:

Benchmarking on the geocaching website is a USA only thing. None in Canada.

 TH0878'DESCRIBED BY INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY COMMISSION 1911 (CHS)
 TH0878'ABOUT 2-1/2 MILES NORTHWEST OF INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY MONUMENT 554,
 TH0878'IN SE 1/4 SECTION 18, TOWNSHIP 1, RANGE 22 W, SECOND MERIDIAN.  THE
 TH0878'STATION IS ON THE MORE SOUTHERN OF TWO PEAKS ON A PROMINENT RIDGE.
 TH0878'
 TH0878'STATION MARK--A CAIRN OVER A BRONZE DISK MARKED---U.S. AND C.B.
 TH0878'SURVEY---SET IN CONCRETE.

I have a several year old tabulation that lists several more north of the Medicine Line north of Sheridan County, Montana.  Should be a couple of previous threads on this subject.  Seems like there are a few Down East also.  MEL

 

[Bill93]

Each country may have a few across the border, but it seems their data bases don't overlap.  Even though the BM at Father Point is the reference for all of our NAVD88 elevations and has an NGS PID, you can't get an NGS data sheet for it.

[+thebruce0]

There actually are at least one or two in Canada. I'm a little surprised how hard it is to find a list of benchmarks IN the GC database with coordinates in Canada.

OG0225 and TH0829 are two, for example. There seem to be a number along the Canada side of the US border as well, I believe.

I was curious about that long ago, but never pursued doing any official type of research... but they do exist in the db!

[+elyob]

In the benchmarks categories of Waymarking, you can see many cross-border examples.

[+thebruce0]

Waymarking has many. But the ones listed in the GC database are few and far between - but they're there.

[kayakbird]

Hi All,

A somewhat connected sub-set would be PID's south of the Medicine Line that were placed by the Geodetic Survey of Canada:  My ten year old GSAK download shows 15 in Montana placed by 'GSC'.  The only two that I got to have standard US Coast & Geodetic Survey brass caps.  

TK0419'DESCRIBED BY GEODETIC SURVEY OF CANADA 1922
TK0447'DESCRIBED BY GEODETIC SURVEY OF CANADA 1923

Was hoping to find one of theirs.   There is Mexican brass in Nogales, Arizona.  kayakbird

 

 

 

Edited October 20, 2020 by kayakbird
spelling

[foxtrot_xray]

On 10/20/2020 at 2:10 PM, kayakbird said:

Hi All,

A somewhat connected sub-set would be PID's south of the Medicine Line that were placed by the Geodetic Survey of Canada:  My ten year old GSAK download shows 15 in Montana placed by 'GSC'.  The only two that I got to have standard US Coast & Geodetic Survey brass caps.  

TK0419'DESCRIBED BY GEODETIC SURVEY OF CANADA 1922
TK0447'DESCRIBED BY GEODETIC SURVEY OF CANADA 1923

Was hoping to find one of theirs.   There is Mexican brass in Nogales, Arizona.  kayakbird

 

 

 

Interesting - decided to run some queries on my database (which is from the begiinning of September of this year) -

There are 256 stations that were monumented by GSC, and total of 366 that they've reported on.

There are 155 in AK, 2 in ID, 37 in ME, 10 in MI, 9 in MN, 15 in MT, 34 in ND, 3 in NH, 21 in NY, 11 in VT, and 9 in WA.

205 datasheets do not have a 'Mark Logo' entered in. 9 are marked as CGS, 33 are marked as GSC, and 19 are marked as NGS.

 

 

 

[foxtrot_xray]

When I was running the above numbers, I noticed something strange, and found out I had a bug in my database. I fixed it, and reimported all the stations, and found something interesting:

 

Of all the publishable stations, 10 have a "MONUMENTED" or "FIRST OBSERVED" (code of "S" in the NGS database) by the "GEOCAC" agency. ONE is legit, DM5588, actually named 'GEOCAC', the special one set back in 2009.

 

The rest are odd ones:

Quote

EZ6426
JV6118
KU3929
LW4049
LW4497
LW5135
LX5725
MY3831
MZ1524

 

All have an entry similar to:

Quote

 EZ6426                          STATION RECOVERY (UNK )
 EZ6426
 EZ6426'RECOVERED UNK
 EZ6426'RECOVERED AS DESCRIBED.

 

[kayakbird]

foxtrot_xray & all,

 

LW4049'CRANBERRY BOG ACCESS ROAD NEAR THE SE CORNER OF THE BOG. THE EAST FACE

LW4049'OF THE STONE HAS A CARVED B AND THE WEST FACE A CARVED M.

LW4049'THE STONE IS A CORNER MARK OF THE BARNSTABLE AND MASHPEE TOWN BOUNDARY

Looks like they did a lot of work to get PID's, with datasheets, for some obscure boundary corners; but never added them to the game tabulation.

kayakbird

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 3, 2020 by kayakbird
add an s

[+Goldenwattle]

On 10/6/2020 at 2:50 PM, James0116 said:

Thank you everyone for your help

 

I have taken your feedback on and will use what you have said,

 

I am also going to contact Geocaching HQ for the possibility of benchmarking to be added to the Waymarking website st people can add benchmarks if they are available in their own country,

 

then people can collect that they have done a benchmark and get the special icon on their profile statistics 

 

thanks

 

James0116

Why not join the Australian site? All the trigs are listed for you to find and log. Plus NZ trigs were recently added. Plus there are other things to find.

Edited November 3, 2020 by Goldenwattle