FWIW,
I cannot definitively tell from the picture BUT IF the monument was undermined by nearby construction/excavation the monument lost its value as a benchmark. Removing a disk from an undisturbed monument is a crime though rarely, if ever, prosecuted.
In the event that a benchmark monument has been clearly, unambiguously been disturbed/ undermined it should be destroyed and the disk sent to the NGS state advisor. Alternately a clear picture of the disk outside the monument sent to NGS in order to update the monument's status to DESTROYED.
I recollect a conversation with an irate landowner who was mad at me for chipping the disk out of a monument laying fully out of the ground at the entrance to his farm. He wanted me to replant it. It was a benchmark. If I had not chipped out the disk, he would have replanted it.
I hope that the person who posted this message has reported the destruction of the disk to the NGS.
Cheers,
DMM
(former NGS employee)
Hey Paden,
Regardless of how the benchmark cap was, (chose one), mutilated, destroyed, obliterated, eaten, ran over, jack hammered, geocached?,removed by aliens,etc… You should let the USC&GS-(NOAA) know about it.
Have a great week!:-)
Someone did a lot of excavating to find the mark. The top of the concrete appears to be pretty dirty and fairly undisturbed. Looks to me like they found a concrete post/mass and the cap was allready gone. I could be wrong about that, but I think I'd call the surveyor before publicly accusing them of destroying a monument.
DJJ
I can never understand why people, especially surveyors destroy monuments. Back in 2004, th engineering firm I worked for had a person who was well known in the business, taught at Georgia Tech, was the Fulton county surveyor, and the head of our survey department. Well, we were working on this job that was a road re-alinement. In the course of our survey, we found a land lot corner that was chiseled at the top with the four corner lot numbers, and checking the plats we discovered that it was set in 1897. He demanded that we dig it up. We refused. He then sent his son and his screw to do the deed. When my crew chief gave him hell about it, telling him "I don't care who your father is, I'm not digging up that corner and my crew is not helping you either." Well, they did, and the next morning my chief was in the father's office getting his behind chewed. His excuse was that since the area was going to be destroyed with the new road, it didn't matter. But I think the county should have the say so on that. I can't bring myself to destroy a monument no matter the circumstances. Oh. The land lot corner ended up in our office, just sitting in a corner. I forever called it the "Brad Stone" in honor of my crew chief who refused to have a part in digging it up.
I chipped out a NGS monument, NH-1, in Nome. This one was on a concrete jetty and I removed it the day before COE blew the jetty up. It hasn't happened yet, but the intent is to mount it for display at the museum, as a lot of Nome was constructed from this monument. If we hadn't removed it, it would be buried with the rest of the concrete from the jetty. Exception rather than a rule though!
-JD-
Seems Like Paden May Be Jumping to Conclusions Here.
i'm w/Scilian on this. I would tend to blame it on another surveyor last. It seems more likely that it was taken by someone that doesn't appreciate its value as not being removed.
Uh, SKW is a pretty big firm with many surveyors in several States. I'm sure they do not appreciate having their name smeared on this forum. I would suggest being very careful with your words.
Not same one.
The hobbist benchmark hunters identified that one in this recent thread as being PID EN0401 from Texas, which C&GS/NGS marked as destroyed in 1968.