Friday, June 26, 2009

250 Words: Baseline Mark JS 1013

Curiosity is not one of my driving forces. However, when my curiosity is piqued I tend to explore until satisfied. I am not curious about everything. I have become curious about the Geodetic Survey mark I found near Lake Tahoe. There are over a million of them. Where are they?



I joined geocaching.com to find out. You have to join to search for these marks, unless you want to try understanding what the Feds publish. Too well do I know how they work. Geocaching.com has a database of marks and other things hidden by geocaching zealots. On the left, after you sign it, you will see a link for "Find a Benchmark". This will take you to a page with a zip code search. There are probably 20 marks in this zip code.


Clicking on "View Original Datasheet" will give you the Official record for this mark, which includes:


AT SACRAMENTO, AT THE NORTHEAST CORNER OF THE INTERSECTION OF 8 STREET AND I STREET, AT THE SOUTHWEST CORNER OF THE FEDERAL OFFICE BUILDING, AT THE WEST ENTRANCE TO THE BUILDING, 28.9 FEET NORTH OF THE SOUTHWEST CORNER OF THE BUILDING, SET ON TOP OF THE TOP GRANITE STEP 4.2 FEET SOUTH OF THE CENTER LINE OF THE WEST ENTRANCE, 0.4 FEET WEST OF THE WEST WALL AND ABOUT 4 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND.

This is the Post Office across the street from Central Library.










Walk South on 8th Street. See the entrance to the Post Office?


Turn and walk up the steps but don't go into the Post Office.




The bench mark was place in 1933, to the right of the West doors.






Look to the right, on the cement near the building.


See the round mark?

1 comment:

  1. Curious - I joined geocaching recently too, but for an entirely different reason! I'm starting to walk more, and I thought it might be fun for Husband and me to try to find some of those caches (not necessarily the federal ones.) There are some "easy" caches around my mom's place in Hawaii, and I hope to go looking for at least one next week. Thanks for the update!

    ReplyDelete