Benchmark Picture Contest !

2.7k · June 17, 2004

Some benchmark pictures are really excellent! Sometimes I "set as background" one for my computer for a while, until I find another really good one. I propose a thread here for posting really good benchmark pictures, either your own or someone else's. :unsure:

Contest rules: (yeah I know, I'm always proposing so many rules; ... anyway...)

1. No intersection stations (the station IS the tower, building, etc.) Why? Well they all look pretty good, but they're not really all that 'benchmarky'.

2. The disk has to be at least vaguely visible in the picture. No - 'view from', 'the area', etc. with no PID marker in it. Why? It's gotta be a Benchmark picture!

3. It has to be a PID in the database, or at least one of its reference marks or its azimuth mark (in case they don't have their own PID).

4. No closeup of just the disk. (Comeon, it's just a disk - where's the nice scenery?)

I went through the recent benchmark gallery and picked some, and here are some entries (no, none of these are my pics):

__PID____Artist__

AB5056 tom4props

GU4007 Kewaneh & Shark

HP0354 imapackrat

JV4769 mustanglx

SS1666 CallawayMT

1.3k · June 17, 2004

Wow, some amazing pics. I will have to look more artistically at my picture taking opportunites and less like it is a job. Hard to beat the first one though--there is certainly no view like that around here.

Did I miss the part about what we win though? :unsure:

4.1k · June 17, 2004

I am going to protest the rules :unsure: since one of our best finds has the disk buried under 8 feet of rocks.

PID#GQ0323 to see the cairn and background.

John

1.3k · June 17, 2004

How do you KNOW it is under there? Show us the pics of you dismantling the pile and you get my vote!

4.1k · June 17, 2004

I trust the last surveyor to not lie about it being there.

John

June 18, 2004

This is my submission.

PT0373 Designation Hiway. Sully County, South dakota. Lake Oahe in the background.

June 18, 2004

Here's my entry. It's in portrait format, so it won't work as a desktop.

KT2092 It's the Point Cabrillo lighthouse near Ft. Bragg, CA. Absolutely gorgeous.

I have a larger version of the picture, but this is how it resized.

I also have this shot. It's of a US Army Corps boundary marker. It's not listed on Geocaching.com, however. But I really like the picture. It's located on Table Mountain just outside of Jamestown, CA.

USACE%20572%20Side%20Edit.jpg

June 19, 2004

Here a couple of my favorites, so far!

Scott KG0603

The benchmark can barley been seen just under the middle cross and a little to the left, I know, it looks like the other cow pies in the pasture but it is there.

Milo KF0904

Really a nice view from up here.

Edited June 19, 2004 by Oneyedjack

June 19, 2004

Looking back through my collection of benchmark pictures has made me realize that I search for benchmarks in a lot of places that are not too easy to look at....

- Kewaneh

June 19, 2004

Image by: geo50chevy

PLYMOUTH NATIONAL MONUMENT

June 19, 2004

Sheex, you expect me to compete with those pics? Sorry, but all I'd have to offer would be Pikes Peak and that's just a pile of rocks!

I give up and declare them all winners! :lol:

All I can offer is the blue skies of Colorado and drought conditions:

Edited June 19, 2004 by Colorado Papa

June 19, 2004

This is my best to date. PF1145. This pic actually shows the location of 4 recovered BM's (not the tower in the background) and the location of a 5th not-located BM.

Here goes:

Edited June 19, 2004 by Spoo

June 19, 2004

Looks good to me! :lol:

June 19, 2004

This is my best to date. PF1145.

I don't recognize you without the red hat. Is that a beer in your hand? :lol:

Edited June 19, 2004 by Colorado Papa

4.1k · June 20, 2004

We decided to let you see another picture, this one is the Cedar Mountain triangulation station in Utah, right on the AZ. State line. The disk is bottom right.

This is just one of the views of the total 360 degree view you can get from this station...fantastic spot.

Shirley & John

June 20, 2004

This is the best I can do, from the backroads of NW Ohio:

Reference mark #2 for MD1837.

2.7k · June 23, 2004

Wow, what a bunch of great benchmarking pictures!!! :lol:

I gotta put in my 2¢ worth--- ES0950's RM 1 in Arizona at the edge of the Mogollon Rim.

4.1k · June 23, 2004

Now we understand why you started this thread!! :lol:

Great shot.

John & Shirley

2.7k · June 23, 2004

Hah! No way. It's still somene else's picture from among those in my original post that's currently on my screen background. Thank you though. :lol:

4.1k · June 23, 2004

Your post reminded us of this one. (it's an old age thing).

It is from benchmark HO0620

And if you don't mind an oldfart in the picture you can use it for your screen background! :blink:

The mark is in front of my feet.

John & Shirley

Added where the marks is and adjusted some spelling.

Edited June 23, 2004 by 2oldfarts (the rockhounders)

June 23, 2004

June 27, 2004

Here's my try. I know it's the most photographed lake in Oregon but there's the bench mark on the wall. NZ1031

1.4k · June 27, 2004

How about this one? It is not "just a disk" On the other hand, it is NOTHING ELSE BUT a marker.

This marker is on the border between El Paso, Texas, Sunland Park, New Mexico, and Juarez, Mexico. The junction of 3 states and two countries. This is the first of a string of markers going from the Rio Grande to the Pacific.

July 1, 2004

Just took this one on Saturday.

HR2877 [GLACIER POINT] with Half Dome in the background.

1.4k · July 1, 2004

Just took this one on Saturday.

HR2877 [GLACIER POINT] with Half Dome in the background.

Nice composition and use of depth of field.

2.7k · July 1, 2004

Very cool benchmark picture!

Also, something kinda funny about the half-dome hairdo there. :laughing:

July 1, 2004

Thanks for the comments, guys. I kept waiting for that guy to leave. But trying to get a photo without people in Yosemite on a Saturday is nigh impossible.

Sadly, we didn't make it to the top of Half Dome on Monday as planned. A lightning storm turned us back. I'm surprised that there is no benchmark listed for the summit of Half Dome. Curious.

1.4k · July 1, 2004

I kept waiting for that guy to leave. But trying to get a photo without people in Yosemite on a Saturday is nigh impossible.

If people don't get out of my way I find a way of making them a part of the picture just like you did. Silhouetting them against a sunset works well. I find it actually makes the photo more interesting.

4.1k · July 3, 2004

Wow! What fantastic pictures!

MOCKBA may have the edge because of the puppy in the scene.

(Of course, the one with the 'old fart' in it is cute too).

<_<

Keep them coming...enjoying them all very much, thank you.

Shirley~

Edited; to include a compliment to my honey--can't hurt...he does take me with him... <_<

Edited July 3, 2004 by 2oldfarts (the rockhounders)

2k · July 3, 2004

Wow, some really great photo's.

Makes me what to go and look for my first BM.

2.7k · July 3, 2004

Milbank -

You'll have a LOT more things to look for if you include benchmarks. <_<

2oldfarts (the rockhounders) -

Yep, that's a cool hero pic! The courageous benchmark hunter takes his reading, undaunted by the precipitous drop before him.

2.3k · July 10, 2004

My favorite benchmark so far was THIS ONE :

July 10, 2004

Here is a picture of Park KW3136 in Perry County Pennsylvania.

Airnut's Benchmark Page

Here is a better view of Park Reference Mark 3 and a missing Reference Mark 1. The Susquehanna River is in the background.

Airnut's Benchmark Page

2.7k · July 23, 2004

I was perusing the benchmark gallery and saw this nice one! It's now my desktop pic for awhile. It is KS2007. There's a couple of other good pics there too.

1.7k · July 26, 2004

(I really need to get our pictures online.....)

From a series of benchmarks I am more than a little obsessed with.

The aerial photo of the benchmark.

CZ2339

Willey Javelina's photo of another in that series.

The benchmark is in the center of the cross. The Army flew OV-1 Mohawks and used these benchmarks for camera alignment and resolution studies in the 1960's.

Maybe not the most exciting benchmarks, but how many can you see in aerial photos?

July 26, 2004

I found this Bearing Tree while deer hunting in the Huron National Forest, near Rose City, MI.

July 27, 2004

Two of my favorites from a recent trip to Maine, :blink:

PE1894 Somesville Church Spire, Somesville, ME

PE1902 Savage Mountain 1870 Northeast Harbor, ME

Within a few paces of this chair were two reference marks and the copper bolt placed in 1870. I'm sure that the stone chair was placed awhile ago as there is nothing to see from the sumit, many trees have grown up and obscured the view.

Midway Cafe

1.3k · August 16, 2004

Hey, I finally took a pic I thought might be worthy enough to appear here! It is of a power plant stack and it was really just a grab shot from across the Susquehanna River when I looked for another mark. The stack is behind a power pole as that was the only shot I could get, but in retrospect that is kind of prophetic because the tower is carrying lines from the station the stack is at.

1.1k · August 16, 2004

Ok, I don't know if this counts, but.. This picture is taken of a benchmark (LW4388) from a benchmark (LW0048)

2.7k · August 17, 2004

These intersection station pictures are really cool, but not really part of this 'contest';

Black Dog Trackers Posted: Jun 17 2004, 09:56 AM
Contest rules: (yeah I know, I'm always proposing so many rules; ... anyway...)

1. No intersection stations (the station IS the tower, building, etc.) Why? Well they all look pretty good, but they're not really all that 'benchmarky'.

.........

Here are a couple of really excellent benchmark contest pictures that I saw in the recent benchmark gallery!

KL0768 by beatnick:

ME2693 by JeremyA:

4.1k · August 18, 2004

I feel I must really protest when the person who started this contest finds and enters someone else's great pictures.

So many great benchmarks left out there for us to find, like this style of placement.

It is for CZ1035 an Army Map Service disk designation AM 50.

Thanks for this thread.

John

1.3k · August 19, 2004

John,

How did you EVER find that one? Amazing skills in searching!

Also, I looked at JeremyA's find and thought it was a reset mark, so I emailed him and he finally saw my point--the mark is described as being in concrete but is in a stone wall. I suspect it may have been reset but not redescribed. He will be submitting to Deb to see if she agrees that it is destroyed. So this thread has been valuable and not just pretty!

Matt

August 19, 2004

Here is a benchmark we found recently 2 miles from our home. Can anyone tell us the significance of the name on the disk: MATTINA???

We ask this for obvious reasons.

The Mattina Family Seekers

August 19, 2004

Here is a benchmark we found recently 2 miles from our home. Can anyone tell us the significance of the name on the disk: MATTINA???

We ask this for obvious reasons.

The Mattina Family Seekers

You found NC1302. It's purely coincidental that the name of the bencnmark and your name are the same.

2.7k · August 19, 2004

Actually, that should be logged as a not-found, so far. As you said, what you did find was the azimuth disk for station Mattina. Finding the azimuth disk is not a find for triangulation station Mattina, NC1302. The station disk will have a triangle in the middle of it instead of the arrow.

The real NC1302 is about .25 mile away, according to the description. It is a location-adjusted mark, so your GPS if you have one, should lead you to within 15 feet or so of the disk.

If you find it, then log a find for NC1302. You might also be able to find a couple of reference mark disks near the station. They will all be stamped Mattina. You should try to take pictures of the whole collection! Reference mark #4 might be a bit difficult as it is below ground level.

2.7k · August 19, 2004

John -

Just for kicks I looked at a satellite map and could see that maltese cross for CZ1035.

1.3k · August 19, 2004

Mattina Family,

It may NOT be a coincidence that the disk and your name are the same. Do you have a family history in the area the disk may well be named after your family or had been set on their property. I have recovered Bower on the Bower property and at least three others like that. So it is quite possible the mark is somehow "yours".

Matt

August 20, 2004

These intersection station pictures are really cool, but not really part of this 'contest';
Black Dog Trackers Posted: Jun 17 2004, 09:56 AM
Contest rules: (yeah I know, I'm always proposing so many rules; ... anyway...)

BDT:

I like your rules much better. I just went through couple hundred gallery pictures. I see some people use the site to post family pictures. JW1513

family history in the area

M:

It occurred to me as well but I didn't think they would wonder if that was the case. The question should have been posted in another string instead of this "contest" string.

Edited August 20, 2004 by Colorado Papa

August 20, 2004

Actually, that should be logged as a not-found, so far. As you said, what you did find was the azimuth disk for station Mattina. Finding the azimuth disk is not a find for triangulation station Mattina, NC1302. The station disk will have a triangle in the middle of it instead of the arrow.

The real NC1302 is about .25 mile away, according to the description. It is a location-adjusted mark, so your GPS if you have one, should lead you to within 15 feet or so of the disk.

If you find it, then log a find for NC1302. You might also be able to find a couple of reference mark disks near the station. They will all be stamped Mattina. You should try to take pictures of the whole collection! Reference mark #4 might be a bit difficult as it is below ground level.

Since we are still very new to Geocaching in general and Benchmarking in particular I was unaware that this is an "azimuth" mark. Thanks for the clarification. We looked for the three other disks supposedly in the area and only found a hard plastic-type dome that may or may not have been covering one. Is this possible? I'll take a pictire of it, what would the purpose of putting a "cap" over a survey marker?

Also, what would the significance of the name on a marker be? In this case it being called MATTINA is of particular interest. Are they named for a reason or is there a naming convention used by the USGS on these???

The Mattina Family Seekers ~ Geocaching Gang

http://www.mattinafamily.com

Edited August 20, 2004 by The Mattina Family Seekers

1.5k · August 20, 2004

They often tried to use local names of towns, property owners names etc. Names that relate to the area. Maybe someone by the name once owned that land? Maybe someone by that name helped or worked with the survey when they were in the area and thus they paid tribute to that person by naming a mark after them. Maybe they owned a hardwares store and the survey crew did business with them, maybe a girl friend someone met. Chances are slim you will ever know for sure.

But it could just as easily be a name picked at random, Maybe someone on the crew came in contact with someone by that name.

Benchmark Picture Contest !

Recommended Posts

Join the conversation