Bureau Of Reclamation Mark

[+TresOkies]

Hello Benchmarkers. I've found a few easy benchmarks but I don't understand all the nomenclature enough to figure this out. Perhaps you folks can give me some insight.

 

A buddy came to my house this afternoon and he was very excited. He said "I know you are into all that GPS stuff, you might tell me what this is." So, we drove to the farm he bought last year and he showed me what he found. It was a Bureau of Reclamation benchmark. The coordinates were N35 14.016 W98 33.845. The concrete base it was set in looked quite a few years old, but it was still intact.

 

The area is one mile due west of the northern perimteter of Fort Cobb reservoir in Caddo County, Oklahoma. Cobb Creek, which feeds the reservoir, runs through his property. The reservoir was constructed in the late 1950's and I'm guessing that this mark was part of the initial surveying done when they did the work. Barring another "40 days and 40 nights" it will probably stay above the water line.

 

The mark is a bronze disk set into concrete. The disk is roughly 6 inches round and says Bureau of Reclamation around it. There are the usual bits about the penalty for destruction. It says "vertical elevation" or something similar, but it looks as if no elevation was ever stamped on it. It looks like it might've had a smaller disk that could've been inset into it that might've once held the elevation. I'm sorry that I don't have a photo, but I didn't take a camera.

 

Is there another site that describes these benchmarks? I'd like to show it to my friend.

 

thanks

 

-E

[+happycycler]

TresOkies -- Welcome to bunchmark hunting!

 

The URL for benchmarks on the geocaching site is: http://www.geocaching.com/mark/

 

I input your coordinates into the benchmark search on the www.geocaching.com website but did not see your BLM mark. Not all survey marks are in the NGS database for a variety of reasons. (The geocaching database is a sub-set of the NGS database.)

 

Closest mark in GeoCaching:

==========================

FK0549 5.8mi W GREBE OK triangulation station disk

N 35° 14.857 W 098° 39.972 (NAD 83)

Altitude: 1639 Designation: GREBE

 

I also input your coordinates into the NGS site with similar results.

 

Closest marks in NGS:

===================

|Dist|PID...|H V|Vert_Source|Approx.|Approx..|Stab|Designation

|----|------|- -|-----------|-------|--------|----|-----------

| 8.9|FK0547|1 .|29/VERT ANG|N351529|W0982437|....|ALBERT

| 9.2|FK0640|B .|88/GPS OBS.|N351726|W0984244|B...|COWDEN

| 5.8|FK0549|1 3|29/LEVELING|N351451|W0983958|....|GREBE

| 9.0|FK0140|. 2|88/ADJUSTED|N350624|W0983617|D...|H 31

| 9.2|FK0141|. 2|88/ADJUSTED|N350617|W0983610|C...|J 31

| 8.5|FK0142|. 2|88/ADJUSTED|N350644|W0983511|D...|K 31

| 9.1|FK0143|. 2|88/ADJUSTED|N350606|W0983302|C...|L 31

| 9.4|FK0144|. 2|88/ADJUSTED|N350618|W0983042|C...|M 31

| 5.0|FK0548|1 .|29/VERT ANG|N351526|W0982850|....|STURM

 

Many of us have found survey marks that are not in teh geocaching database. For those we can enjoy the find but there is currently no place to log our finds.

 

You might look at the page for PID FK0549 (GREBE) to see where many of us start our searches. The URL is:

http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=FK0549

Edited May 10, 2004 by happycycler

[+TresOkies]

I'm fully aware of the standard USGS benchmarks and such. I was wondering where I should go to find info for one of these Bureau of Reclamation benchmarks. Google didn't help much.

 

Thanks

 

-E