We were doing some surveying in my hometown area today. Old coal mining towns that were originally surveyed in 1946. Original monuments are very scarce, as they were drilled stones set in street CL's that have since been paved over. The ones that were not in streets were mostly destroyed with the construction of sewer and water lines. We've tied into some remaining ones in unopened streets in the past and with a little bit of luck today we found this:
This was my first original monument recovery in my town so I was pretty stoked. My dad/boss is a township supervisor, a few years ago they bought vaults to preserve the known monuments, so we vaulted her up. I must say I'm pretty proud of it, and look forward to continue to use it....
Well done !
Cheers
Derek
PS-
Here's a link to a "Special Provision" for Survey Monumentation that is gaining traction: http://www.ogra.org/lib/db2file.asp?fileid=33710
See if it will work in your area.
Cheers,
Derek
I am familiar with working in your area of PA early 1970's.
What coal region town are you referring to in your post?
I know Robertsdale had quite a few monuments placed by the coal companies.
Although not in the coal region, Mt Union had numerous monuments in wells at c/l street
intersections. A real pain to work off when using transit and tapes trying to dodge traffic!
Grant
This one was in Wood, about a mile from Robertsdale (my hometown). We had new water and sewer lines put in which wiped a lot of them out here as well. We have used a used few monuments in Mount Union as well. In fact the borough hired us to do a survey and had the road crew go out and we recovered and vaulted three drilled stone monuments.
There are still some drill holes left in sidewalks in Huntingdon. Although, they are quickly being lost as well.
Nice job! That is an awesome find! I get excited just looking at your pictures. If you have the opportunity later, make a wood frame and pour some concrete around that monument well. People tend to treat them with more respect.
Very nice. Thanks for the pictures.
I like the idea of using the vault and leaving the original monument for others to see.
I appreciate looking at the hole you dug. It worked over that direction. Good thing you kept digging and widening from your original dig-point. Good find. That's what makes a guy keep coming back.
Way to go! Glad you boxed it.
nice story and good pics,
thanks for sharing them here,
Chr.