Benchmark mania

I really love finding a benchmark atop a peak and almost always make the effort to get a pic of it. I thought an album would be a nice way to keep them together hence, this album. Over 190 are up, probably another 10 or more to add. : )

I've found them on peaks all over the west. They are a unique legacy to those who summit the mountains of the USA. As you can see they come in some differing forms and different colors. Some of the ones placed in the early part of the twentieth century are in good shape while some of the more recent ones have taken a beating. The metal used seems to have made a big difference in how well they stand up to the elements and abuse. In many cases the cenral benchmark is gone or under something but a witness marker with a name on it is
a nice find and many are submitted in this album.

This LINK has a lot of information about benchmarks and their significance. The following is from this link:

What is a benchmark?

"A benchmark is a point whose position is known to a high degree of accuracy and is normally marked in some way. The marker is often a metal disk made for this purpose, but it can also be a church spire, a radio tower, a mark chiseled into stone, or a metal rod driven into the ground. Over two centuries or so, many other objects of greater or lesser permanence have been used. Benchmarks can be found at various locations all over the United States. They are used by land surveyors, builders and engineers, map makers, and other professionals who need an accurate answer to the question, "Where?" Many of these markers are part of the geodetic control network (technically known as the National Spatial Reference System, or NSRS) created and maintained by NOAA's National Geodetic Survey (NGS)."

From the same source, this about Witness benchmarks:

"Triangulation stations usually have two or more reference marks associated with them. Reference marks are for helping to keep the location of triangulation stations from being lost and are not actually geodetic control marks. The triangulation station's description has accurate azimuth and horizontal (not slope) distance to each of its reference marks so that it can be re-set from them if necessary. These marks also have arrows in their centers that are supposed to point toward the triangulation station. A few reference marks are surveyed with adjusted coordinates and have their own PID in the database."

Note: I have attached several pics taken by Dennis Poulin of benchmarks that were on peaks we did. Sometimes my pics were too blurry to use or I forgot to get a picture (yes, that does happen) and it was great to fall back on pics that he had taken.