One That Had Us Measuring

[2oldfarts (the rockhounders)]

Here is our story...

 

On 7/30/05 we had to stop again and try for a mark that had brought us here several times before....but, first I have to show you this picture...

 

 

This is a picture of a scrub pine tree with a nice round hole straight through it that we had spotted on the visit before. We have never seen a tree with such a feature before. It now plays a part in the 'new description' on how to find the mark L 403.

 

Our first time that we stopped by here on our way to somewhere else, we did not have much time, all of the benchmarks along this stretch had been off the coordinates enough to know that the GPSr would only get us in the general area, maybe. So we just looked on all of the rock ledges close to where we thought it might be with no luck. So, we left it for another day. That next time, John brought his metal detector. It was hotter than the blue blazes. He hit several of the ledges but, the heat beat him that day.

 

The next time we stopped by was on our way to visit our daughter, not much time again. We thought we would just scope it out again with the thought of really spending more time soon, but we spotted the tree, wow, what a sight.

 

Finally, we make a trip to this one particular mark with our measuring tape. John paces from the highway to make a line from where we parked, we got out the metal detector again and used it along that line plus several feet on either side of that line. We get several readings, that John gets the shovel for, but turn out to be something other than the disk that we are seeking. So he fills the holes back in. Then, *Eureka!* He gets a strong reading and digs to see a very welcome sight, the disk on a rock ledge that had been buried over time.

 

We get to write a new description using the unique tree with a hole straight through it (but, there are lots of ants in the hole). Still pretty cool!

 

So now I would like to hear one of your stories about that one mark, that was nagging at you till you actually found the dang thing. What lengths did you go to (measuring or researching or asking questions, etc.) and how many trips did it take? Or if you do not have any experience such as this, maybe you have one with something unique close by that you would like to share a picture with us. Something that caught your eye while hunting a benchmark?

 

Shirley~

[ArtMan]

That true certainly makes a unique landmark in a description, but your story begs the question: who put the hole there, and why? I thought you were going to tell us that some surveyor drilled the hole to sight a line through.

 

Any other theories?

 

-ArtMan-

[+Klemmer]

Used to be a benchmark disk in there?

[+seventhings]

Looks like it was made by a cannon ball during the Battle of Bitter Springs.

Good find!

w

[2oldfarts (the rockhounders)]

The cannonball made the hole for this one and we used it to measure for this buried Vertical Control Disk set by the NGS.

 

 

 

We finally found N 368 After a number of tries.

 

We seem to have a fixation on holes in the vicinity of difficult to find benchmarks that we are hunting. We added some new measurements for finding this buried mark that lost it's witness post many many moons ago! The hole came in handy for being a distinct & permanent anchor point for making a measurement.

 

Shirley wants to know if I'm the only one who can't let go of a benchmark, once I try to find it, until it is recovered.

 

John