Query About Reporting Benchmark

[Ellery]

Hi all,

I'm just getting into benchmarking/geocaching and in checking the lists of benchmarks for the area around zip code 23922, I noticed that one of the marks definitely does not exist.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=GW0188

 

This building (the old high school) was destroyed over 10, 15 years ago when Nottoway county consolidated the high schools in the area. It is now a community park. From the description, the benchmark was placed on the outside of the building. Couple of questions:

 

Should I go ahead and log this as a mark destroyed?

Should the NGS be notified about this (or is it not necessary?)

 

Finally this benchmark has been moved:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=GW0189

 

Norfolk Southern wanted to destroy the old station. The residents of Burkeville raised funds to purchase and move the station. The station was moved approximately 2, 3 years ago to another location. THAT location was the site of the old high school. How should this be noted in the logs.

 

Basically at the moment, for anyone trying to log these two:

 

You would not find GW0188 as it does not exist.

You would find GW0189 within a few feet from where GW0188 used to be.

 

As a newbie, I'm not really sure how this is handled, so if this is discussed somewhere, please point me in the direction of the information. Thanks and good hunting!

[mloser]

You can explain the situation(s) when you log at Geocaching.com just like you did in your posting. This is just a hobby site and postings are viewed only by Geocaching members.

 

If you want to log to NGS you will need to do some research first You may want to start by searching this forum for postings that have NGS or Deb Brown in them, as the topic of how to submit destroyed marks to NGS has been covered in depth a few times. In a nutshell, you can show a mark as destroyed only if you find the actual disk out of position--for instance, the monument has been hit by a car and tilted, or the disk has been knocked off it. If there is no disk, then the NGS will not mark the benchmark as destroyed, as there is no guarantee that you have found the exact benchmark site--just what LOOKS like it. For a building that is a bencmark, for instance the steeple of a church, if you can show that the building no longer exists at that site the NGS will mark it as destroyed.

 

As for the train station, if the mark still exists on the structure, I would suggest getting pictures of the mark, the location on the station, the station site, and the OLD station site if possible and submit them to NGS with your reasons for saying the mark is destroyed. I just found a similar situation and am waiting to hear from Deb at NGS. I would think that a mark described like that one could be harmful if someone doesn't know the history behind it!

 

Matt

[+Black Dog Trackers]

Since you are local (I assume) to the area and know the details of the histories of these two buildings, I advise that you log both PIDs as destroyed on the geocaching site. I also think that you should report them to the NGS as well, especially the one that was moved so that no one will use it for surveying.

 

I think that the NGS will want pictures. I suggest you take a picture of the railroad station's new location and its old location and email them to Deb at the NGS.

 

*** I now see that mloser was quicker at typing than me ***

Edited August 10, 2004 by Black Dog Trackers

[Ellery]

Thanks for the advice guys . I think that is what I'm going to do in taking photos of the two sites documenting the changes and sending them in to Deb. I may also include documented account (newspaper article) about the move as additional material. I really appreciate the help and direction. Take care

[mloser]

This sort of thing is not without precedence--I just had a station declared destroyed as it was moved from one bridge abutment to another with no change in description. See KW0924 X154 Camp Hill, PA. Although I feel bad about there being one less benchmark in the world, in this case it is much better to have the mark destroyed than to have someone use it and have their survey incorrect.

 

Matt