How Many Benchmarks Are Still There?

[+dhenninger]

Went hunting for 14 benchmarks in my home area today and only found 4.

 

4 Found

1 On Private Property (someone's back yard)

2 Destroyed/removed by town

4 Confirmed missing Along a railroad that was taken out to build a new highway

2 Unconfirmed missing along railroad. Unaccessable

1 Along Highway with no access for pedestrians

 

Is this normal for your area?

[+seventhings]

dhenning25 -

 

Over the past 18 months, I have gone out to search for benchmarks in VA, NJ, DE, MD and DC, and, to a much lesser extent, CO, NM, AZ, UT, PA and NYC.

 

I have looked for 1,239 marks. I have found 736, failed to find 367, noted 90 as inaccessible, and posted 46 as destroyed. All of the marks that I've posted as destroyed are (were!) intersection stations (towers, spires, etc.)

 

Not counted in the above figures are benchmarks that I've passed on (about 100) based on their described locations - railroad rights-of-way not near a crossing, interstate highways with no safe access on foot, and marks buried more than a few inches below the surface (although, recently, I've been more aggressive in digging for buried marks).

 

I would post your results as 4 found, 4 not found, 4 inaccessible (the private property, highway and two railroad ROW), and 2 destroyed.

 

That's not a great day, but it is not terribly unusual.

 

I recommend that you not spend a lot of time or effort on the marks along railroad rights-of-way and on interstates.

 

7

[mloser]

I think it really depends on the area where you live. I had had decent luck here in south central PA, but my trip to Connecticut a month ago was a dismal failure--I think I found about 4 out of 20 looked for marks.

 

My overall "record":

257 found

137 not found

15 marked destroyed (although most of those were not reported to NGS as destroyed. I think I have 4 of those to date).'

19 notes--mostly not founds that I want to go back to.