Over 2,000 Found -

[+seventhings]

Congratulations to "Me & Bucky" who. within the last day or so, has logged his 2,000th find (2,047 to be exact). To the best of my knowledge, this is the most finds by a lone benchmark hunter by a wide, wide margin. Whether the most or not, it is an awesome achievement.

 

Congratulations, Dave. I hope you have continued success but, hey!, save a few for the rest of us!!

 

Will

[+marvin1226]

Ditto on the congrats.

[+Camper1]

TWO GRAND IS AN AWSOME ACHIEVMENT. GOOD WORK AND CONGRATS!!!

[+BilboB]

I know how hard it is to get to 200! Oh my God....2000!! You are a machine!

[mloser]

Yes! What an achievement! I can only hope for 2,000 by the time I die, if I live a long time too!

 

That said, it might be time for a check on stats again. We did this a little less than a year ago, and might want to do it periodically, unless Jeremy wants to provide a way for us to list the benchmarks by number of finds (hint).

 

I stand, as of this afternoon, at 412 found. Yesterday marks my 1 year benchmarking anniversary, and I was hoping to find 500, but with the year I just had, I am happy with what I have.

 

Matt

[ArtMan]

Amazing!

 

Think of it this way: if he/she/they found 2,000, it means Me & Bucky probably visited 3,000 or maybe as many as 4,000 benchmark sites. Add to that more than 1,800 caches and you have to wonder when Me & Bucky eats and sleeps.

 

-ArtMan-

[+BuckBrooke]

I currently have 112 found, and plan to average 10/week for this year, to reach about 560 by the end of the year. Mostly benchmarks, with few church spires/water towers. I have a couple of day-long runs planned around my area, 100, 65 and 50 marks respectively, but the weather and life events have popped up recently and kept me from moving on these.

 

Congrats to Me & Bucky.

[+BilboB]

You obviously do not have young children!

[+BuckBrooke]

I'll try to get as many benchmarks as I can before my wife and I have kids. There's ~700 marks in my county, Bernalillo county in New Mexico. I've already found or tried to find 315 or so, with 200 more on various planned trips. There are another 30 that have been found already I'll need to visit, and after some updating of others' NOT FOUNDs there should be 100 left or so. about 60-75 are on Kirtland Air Force base/Sandia National Labs, and so are off-limits for me (I'm not a nuclear weapons designer or a fighter pilot). So, just a few scattered here and there to find.

 

Then, there's the other counties. We probably have 12,000 benchmarks in New Mexico. *sigh* I went 8 for 40 this weekend, which was highly disappointing. Geo Trailblazer, Team Tuxawuxa and Me & Bucky are the prime contributors to the state so far, and I'll try to rival them. I have a few tricks to pull that might help out a lot, so...So many to find.

[+Me & Bucky]

My thanks to Will and those here who have posted congratulations, as well as those who have sent emails. Your words of kindness are much appreciated!

 

Mloser wrote in one of his posts after having a really good day, that “It is one of the things that keeps me benchmarking—you get to see and touch history.” I guess that just about sums up how I look at things as well.

 

Being able to see and touch the old disks, spires, water towers, chiseled squares, etc., you get to touch in a small way, the lives and times of those who established or set the marks. That old brewery that made a local beer may no longer be there, but the chimney still stands. Long forgotten Airway Beacons may be gone, but there may be cement arrows on the ground, pointing the way to the next beacon in the string. Bench marks lining the old alignments of roads and railroads that no longer exist, but are reminders of where people and commerce flourished. What history there is right under our very noses!

 

And what interesting stories come out of the searches! Seventhings finding Mason Dixon Stones and Colorado Papa following out the bench marks along the old alignments of railroads. The 2oldfarts finding cairns in the southwest, ArtMan covering Washington D.C., and CallawayMT finding Initial Points. Whether you find many in a day, or that one special mark (see DaveD at the Washington Monument!) I think that we as a group have a pretty good time doing what we do.

[+GEO*Trailblazer 1]

And congrats from me too.

Don't forget about the part of Making History as well.

For those of us Benchmarkers Involved with the NGS at the Lewis and Clark Signatre events got to help dedicate Some of the Neatest Historic Benchmarks I have ever seen.

 

And we have a chance to continue that process,Dave Doyle has given Geocaching the abilities(PERMISSION) to help by putting on Geocaching events that correspond to the Lewis and Clark Disc Signature events disc dedications.

 

I did 5 events,

ST. LOUIS, A BENCHMARK EVENT.

WOOD RIVER,EXPEDITION DEPARTURE DAY.

ST. CHARLES,PREPARATION COMPLETE EXPEDITION FACES WEST.

WHICH CARRIED OVER TO WASHINGTON, MISSOURI,AND THEN ACROSS MISSOURI TO,

INDEPENDENCE OR 4TH OF JULY CREEK KANSAS.

 

I traveled the River route and recovered several of the Points that Lewis and Clark Stopped now benchmarks.

TAVERN ROCK RESET,

ST. ALBANS.

 

There are many more great adventures and well I will let you look.

JOIN IN BECOME A PART OF HISTORY.

I remember when I was ahead of ya Me&Bucky....I'll catch up some day after all the hoopla settles.

 

POST# *1959.

[CallawayMT]

Absolutely, congratulations are in order for you Me & Bucky, I have been keeping an eye on you for well over a year now. You not only get out and find this staggering amount of marks, but you do an excellent job of reporting them through photos and descriptive updates. I don't know how you can keep up with your logs, that is almost more time consuming that finding them. Keep up the good work.

 

You are right about the historical aspect of all we enjoy in common, it's great to follow in the footsteps of these past surveyors and honor them by possibly keeping these monuments alive just a little longer through our recoveries. It is also a great way to keep track of where we have been traveling; so we all know you have covered a lot of ground and states in the last year. See you on the side of the road some day.

 

CallawayMT

[mloser]

Me & Bucky, I totally concur! The chiseled squares are great, because you know someone worked to get that mark there--stood or sat on that spot, maybe over 100 years ago, and left what he hoped would be used by future generations. I have yet to find any evidence of an airway beacon (just looked for one today, with a total lack of success, see KW3089), but I know of at least one remaining foundation within easy reach that I will get to.

 

A second aspect that I didn't mention is the people you meet. Although most requests to venture onto someone's property are handled with a quick "yes", there have been some interesting ones in my hunts, including people who remembered the marks being set, and one man who remembered climbing the Bilby tower with a friend as a kid. He overestimated the height of the tower by a factor of two (based on the height of light) but I wasn't about to contradict him while he gave his first hand account. He was also the one who showed us where the destroyed reference mark was located, about 100 feet away from its original location. He was pretty coy in not mentioning how that mark GOT there. Others have told me local history, or have just been friendly or amusing. Some have helped me dig in their yard, out of curiousity to find the mark or perhaps to see what the nutcase with the camera and tape measure was looking for. A hunt for one triangulation station ended, successfully, after talking to 5 different people. Yep, I have gotten some funny looks, but NEVER, ever a turn away!

 

Finally, with due respect to some here who don't see this the same way I do, I get a large charge out of reporting my finds to the NGS, and knowing that what I did will be available for surveyors to use as a help in locating stations. It just feels good to help others, and to have fun doing it!

 

Matt

[2oldfarts (the rockhounders)]

Me & Bucky,

 

I keep meaning to ask you, with all of the caches & benchmarks that you have under your belt...you seem to never come to our part of the country....all the way around it though. Soooo.....there are caches awaiting you.

 

We now have reached our that 100th cache (finally) & just a smidgen of benchmarks under our belts. Some, even after you have logged them. The ones where we followed your footsteps, those chiseled squares on the railroad bridges close to Nipton, were a blast. But, we have found a few before you got there...

 

Congratulations on reaching that record.

 

Hope to see you some day...

 

Shirley & John~

 

edited to correct grammer & spelling do to lack of sleep.

Edited February 11, 2005 by 2oldfarts (the rockhounders)