What Took You So Long To Get Here?

[+PFF]

I drove from Raleigh to Sanford today to attend a funeral. To keep my perspective, I chased a few marks going down and coming back. Besides, the weather was perfect for benchmark hunting—clear skies and temps in the 70’s with a light breeze.

 

I ran across another of those situations that I'm going to put in my book--if I ever get around to writing it. This concerns a mark set in 1918. The only recovery was in 1945, when it was reported that a house had been built over the station, and it was under the kitchen.

 

Everyone appears to have ignored this station (EZ2934) for the past 60 years. I happened to drive by the location and spotted a 1970's brick ranch. I said to myself, "Self, if there was a house standing over the mark in 1945, it could not have been the present dwelling." There was no old frame house in sight. If the house had been torn down, was the mark now exposed?

 

I was dressed pretty well (having just been to a funeral), so I knocked on the door. The owner, who appeared to be in his late 50's, listened to my story about the disk. "I think I have that thing," he said.

 

I followed him across the property to some heavy vines under some trees. The owner pointed to what looked like a large rock. There was the mark, still embedded in a mushroom-shaped concrete mass. It had been uprooted when the house was torn down, which was sometime before 1976--the year the present owner bought the property. He found and kept it, assuming it must be important. Nevertheless, he was surprised that after 30 years, somebody finally knocked on his door, asking about it.

 

My fellow North Carolina benchmark hunters can appreciate this: The previous owner was a Mrs. Wicker. It was her son who founded the Pantry convenience store chain.

 

You gotta LOVE this hobby!

 

-Paul-

 

Confidential for Casey: You can have your disk, if you want it. But the freight charges will wreck your budget.

[evenfall]

Paul,

 

That is too Funny! Who would have thought? Wow.

 

Can you read the Headline? "Man in suit calls on Survey Marker after 30 plus years."

 

Are you going back for it?

 

Rob

[+Black Dog Trackers]

That story is a really amusing! A great find!

 

Um, by the way, what you found is the reference mark.

[+PFF]

Hi, Black Dog:

 

Glad you guys enjoyed the story.

 

It appears that there were at least six "ALLENBY" stations in the area. I don't know who Allenby was, but he must have been jinxed. This place is the Bermuda Triangle for benchmarks!

 

-Paul-

[+Klemmer]

Too funny! Great story. I think you should definitely go "recover" the disc, and send it to NGS! I mean, how often could you do that?

[Difficult Run]

My father worked for the U.S.G.S. for 32 years. We were in the field for about 5 yrs and I helped him set many benchmarks in Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan and Arkansas.

 

I asked him if he ever recovered damaged marks. "Yes I have. There was a farmer who destroyed a mark while plowing." The farmer asked Dad to walk around to the back of the barn, showed him the BM which was dug up. "I've been saving it so it can be returned to the government."

 

Another farmer did the same thing, but thought it looked more appropriate imbedded in the fireplace mantle. I suppose that one had been stamped with a family or place name.

 

It doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

 

Cheers,

Mitch

[+PFF]

By the way, what you found is the reference mark.

 

A gold star to the sharp-eyed Black Dog Trackers for realizing that the main station mark would not have had an arrow! It just goes to show the value of Peer Review!

 

I went over the description in detail, and I have one starting point which might lead me to the station, if it still exists. The present land owner knows where the referenced tree used to stand. (It blew down many years ago in a storm.)

 

We know the distance and bearing from the tree to the Reference Mark, and we have the direction and bearing from the RM to the station. I might be able to work backward from the tree to the station.

 

But here's a question for the professionals: Would there be value in recovering the station if the RM is destroyed? If so, I'll make another trip to Sanford and look for it.

 

But next time, no blue suit. I'll be wearing jeans.

 

-Paul-

 

Closed-circuit for Mitch: I enjoyed your post--especially the part about the benchmark embedded in the fireplace!

[evenfall]

Paul,

 

I have not had time to look over the Datasheet as yet. No Matter, You have this well in hand. Here are some thoughts on how I'd approach it.

 

Make a waypoint of the Geodetic coordinates in your GPS. It should walk you within 5-10 feet of the former location. Go ahead and test this and just round the coordinates to the appropriate size for the GPS. There have to be some easy local stations you can test on. If you ate on map mode with the track on, turn your resolution up to the Highest close up you can and watch where the numbers click over. This will help you define the area that the station will have originally been in.

 

Bill 93 and I believe BDT will advocate that you will see higher accuracy in DDD.DD.DD Mode so once you load the waypoint try it both ways and see. It should get you close but in any case, feel free to test the theory for yourself in your area and on your GPS.

 

Let us know what your testing reveals to you if you would.

 

Thanks and good luck,

 

Rob.

[mloser]

That disk says Allenby 1918 OC 7, or something similar. I would have expected it to say RM 1. Any ideas folks?

 

PFF, if you want to remove that from its concrete home, take a long a long handled sledge. About 10 shots will break the concrete and the disk should pop free. I did this on a similar, but newer disk Ridgeview .

Greg Rotz and I had an experience similar to yours when talking to a farmer about benchmarks in his field. He told us he knew where one of the reference marks was located and took us down to the treeline to show us. He seemed innocent of how it got there, but it was about 100 feet from where it belonged. I suspect he was the one who pushed it there at some point, either because he was the one who removed it, or because it was uprooted (there was a new telephone pole near where it belonged) and he didn't want it sitting in his field.

Greg and I rolled all 500 or so pounds of it into the back of his truck and he took it home with him. He will have to tell you how, or if, he removed it from the concrete. He might have kept it as a lawn ornament. Beats a pink flamingo!

 

Matt

[+gnbrotz]

Greg and I rolled all 500 or so pounds of it into the back of his truck and he took it home with him. He will have to tell you how, or if, he removed it from the concrete. He might have kept it as a lawn ornament. Beats a pink flamingo!

 

Matt

First, I want to thank Matt for not expressing his thoughts on my mental state when I told him this mark was going home with me, especially given the facts that he had already given me an 'extra' destroyed mark he had that was in a much smaller setting and that this was the beginning of a full day of hunting, so not only did I have to transport the mark home, but put up with it while driving around the county all day!

 

When I got home, I wasn't sure exactly how much older I would be when I complete my task, but my goal was to completely free the disk from it's concrete. As Matt mentioned, a sledge hammer was very useful, but when I had whittled the concrete down to about 12" x 12" and I was actually able to carry it, I used a hammer and cold steel chisel to finish off the job. Came out pretty nice.

 

Before (Matt's picture from his log):

 

 

After:

 

Edited May 22, 2005 by gnbrotz

[Bill93]

I presume in all these cases you get the mark officially destroyed by Deb before you take possession of it.

 

If you keep a disk, it would seem worthwhile to use one of those electric engravers to mark the disk with the PID. "Destroyed". and date. Then no matter where it turns up in the future no one will have reason to be confused.

 

Such confusion could result if you use it as a lawn ornament and someone finds it 20 years later. Or if it ever finds its way into the flea market/collectable circuit it won't be mistaken as evidence of destruction of a mark elsewhere with a similar designation.

[evenfall]

Bill,

 

A Reference mark dislodged from it's original location as a result of farming or construction does not necessarily destroy anything. You are not going to put it back where it was and the farmer is not likely to want you to either. It is likely the Station Mark is still in place and fine. A simple recovery note to NGS stating that the RM was found dislodged from it's original location, but that the Station Mark is fine will suffice.

 

This sort of thing happens and is considered acceptable attrition. This was not Vandalism, just happenstance. The Farmer was even willing to show that it had happened.

 

Rob