Benchmark Find

[+Team ARK-ville]

I was out hunting BM's today and came across this one. It is not one I have ever seen, nor is it on the geocaching website. Just wanted to share it with everyone and ask if any of you have ever seen one like it. This is located in Walton, New York on the corner of North and East Street, on a telephone pole. All I could read was the elevation at 2270 feet.

 

Telephone Pole Benchmark

Edited April 23, 2005 by arkville

[+BilboB]

Very cool and never seen it before.

[evenfall]

Arkville,

 

Yes, I have seen them, and I won't use them because I don't trust their stability. I have only seen a few. I first thought I was looking at a bearing tree tag from BLM, but I figured this was a quick and dirty way USGS used to mark the location of a TOPO they did without setting an actual monument.

 

I once mentioned I had seen these here in this Forum and a Surveyor from the Denver Area didn't believe me... I guess they didn't use them everywhere. Heck, I was not sure I believed it either.

 

I would say it is Novel. Quaint. I wouldn't use it. :-D It is not of sufficient quality to be included in NGS data, so it wont be in Geocaching's DB either, But it is a cool find!

 

Rob

[Bill93]

I can't tell in the photo, is there a good horizontal line in there that represents the height being measured?

 

I certainly wouldn't use this one, even if I did consider use of their type. Notice that the corner holes have been ripped out and new nails put in just any old place. This tag has been moved, maybe by the people who replaced the pole thinking they were doing a favor by preserving the tag, at who knows what height relative to where it used to be.

[+Black Dog Trackers]

Could it be that the thing you pictured isn't really the benchmark, and instead it is a way of using a pole for a witness post?

[GH55]

Removed

Edited April 24, 2005 by GH55

[Z15]

I have seen these USGS metal tags before. I am not sure when they were used but I think they were placed by the survey party at the time of leveling.

 

Its just another type of witness post sign, there could be a bench mark in a concrete post closeby and all I found had one.

 

I had former USGS survey team member on my crew and he recalls using these, even brought some in one day he had laying around. He worked for them about a year mapping the Seney Nat'l Wildlife Refuge in the late 1970's, the Party Chief was a hig school buddy of his. He has some good stories to tell about how hard the work was. Running levels thru swamps, standing in water aall day, cutting brush for line of sights for the level, all for little pay. He tells of the instrument crew using Weasels (type of ATV) to set on top off to see over brush will he and other guys wheeled machettes to cut anything in the way. They offered to keep him on when the moved on to the Everglades but he declined. Mosquitoes he could handel but gators, no way!

 

Seney Wilderness Area - (MI)

Seney National Wildlife Refuge

The Seney Wilderness was established in 1970 and contains 25,150 acres. The wilderness is located in what is known as the Great Manistique Swamp. Habitats range from open water, to hardwoods, spruce and pine forests. The majority of the wilderness is characterized by string bog topography, with moist organic soils, and sand ridge islands.

 

Seney Na'tl Wildlife Refuge

Edited April 24, 2005 by Z15