I have a few cousins who are a family of geologists.
Noel Potter, Noel Potter 2nd and Helen Delano. They are out of PA, Helen works with the lidar data at the state, Noel 1 is an old professor of geomorphology at one of the universities and Noel 2 has just completed his first year at Bates College.
This summer the whole family will pack up and ship out to a Rock Glacier in Wyoming just east of Yellowstone.
44°38'22.69"N
109°47'28.88"W
Noel 1's doctorate was some survey of this rock glacier. He has returned many times. They acquired a total station in 1993 and still use it today.
Noel 2 is following in his father's footsteps. During the week, they will have GPS and hopefully a static laser scanner to locate the top of the cirque.
Noel 1 claims they are using some USGS benches just above the cirque to see into the cirque, but I find none listed on the NGS database. I showed Noel 2 around the NGS site and we looked for the USGS benches. There were some quite a ways away which makes me wonder if all of them are published on the map. I was too busy with other stuff to bother looking at the data base. I also gave Noel 2 a crash course in GPS theory, the NGS Geodetic Advisor contact information and an offer to help run the OPUS projects project if he will run some static on whatever points he is using. He may even hike out to one of the published Benches to get a 4+ hour static.
Anybody here in that neck of the woods with any advice for this family?
I have no advice, but I will share an anecdote.
In summer of 1992 I was at Columbia University for a two-week seminar, studying "state of the art" strategic planning. One of the cases we studied was the difference between IBM and Cray computers. IBM provided the utmost of handholding and top-notch service for its clients. Cray provided nothing but the computer, and the computer did not come with an operating system.
Why was Cray so slack? Their primary market was to geologists in the oil fields. Those guys preferred to write their own software, beginning with the operating system.
So, I would bet that your relatives are beyond smart and can apply any advice that comes their way.
Lots of USGS monuments never make it to the NGS database. Do a search for "USGS" and you will find many threads on who to call, one just a week ago.
I'd think that HD scanning would be just the thing for your families research project.