Ngs Benchmark Found Not In Ngs Database

[+xmashl]

I found a reference marker pointing to a witness post (in an area where it is prohibited to walk due to nesting birds). The reference marker was mounted by the NGS themselves, with the imprinting YAQUINA POINT LAT STA RM NO 2. 1885 1985. The nearest marker in the NGS database is the intersection station QE2442. Do you think I should bring it to the attention of the NGS?

[Z15]

NO, I would not bother.

 

Could be the station was reported as lost and this RM never had a PID of its own. Also the fact that a NGS disk is there does not mean it was monumented by NGS. Someone local may have acquired the disk from NGS and re-monumented that point for posterity. I did not work for NGS (state gov) but always had some of the survey disks in my truck in case we needed to reset a mark. The state advisor's will make those available to professionals to set a new mark as well as the witness posts. Many have been set that never had a survey done for whatever reason or data that was submitted to NGS. I know that our agency has many like that, someone accidentally threw out all the field work for a bunch of reset BM's. Building remodeling and they disappeared.

 

Even though no data is published, the old records for the station its points to is probably available from NGS.

[+xmashl]

Even though no data is published, the old records for the station its points to is probably available from NGS.

How do you go about getting the historical datasheets?

[DaveD]

This particular station is what is known as an Astonomic or Astro station. Notice the "LAT" in the designation, which refers to Latitude. In most, but not all (as in this station) the Astro marks were tied into the conventional geodetic triangulation networks over the years. For whatever reason this station was not, so there is not an accurate position for this point. 1985 was about the end of optical astronomic observations by the National Geodetic Survey. The technique was replaced by GPS. While NGS does maintain a description of this mark, we do not publish it since neither the horizontal position or the elevation have been accurately determined for this station.