Where can I find USGS benchmark data sheets

Either the "Find A Control" app for your mobile device. Or Google "DS World" for their Google Earth add on.

Oh, "USGS". Oops sorry, disregard. I am no help.

Maybe here:
http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/datasheets/&apos ;">from NGS

Kris Morgan, post: 325586, member: 29 wrote: I was working hell and gone from civilization yesterday and tripped over one. I shot it with the R10 because, hey, why not. It had a stamped elevation of 369 and the identifier was H6. My NAVD88 elevation from the R10 was 368.82'. I'd love to see the data sheet so that I could see what their lat and long was.

TIA

Checked the USGS web site and it appears you will need to make an email request. The page http://ny.water.usgs.gov/htmls/pub/benchmarks.html&apos ;">NGS, USGS Benchmark Elevation Information provides an email address "USGS Benchmark Elevations" and also says "Include identification number on bronze tablet, State, County, and topographic map name."

Hard to believe that they have not at least SCANNED the benchmark sheets that they have. I realize that entering them into a database would cost a lot of money (data entry, verification, etc), but loading a bunch of 8.5 X 11 sheets into a scanner could be done over time, say by a summer intern?

For those who are unfamiliar, the standard format was typed on letter size sheets, in a booklet covering 15' X 15' (minutes, not feet). Here are the H and V control books for the Uniontown PA 15'X15' quad:

http://www.terrasurv.com/USGS Horizontal Uniontown Quadrangle.pdf'">USGS Horizontal Control

http://www.terrasurv.com/USGS Vertical Uniontown Quadrangle.pdf'">USGS Vertical Control

Note that horizontal control is all NAD 1927 and vertical is all NGVD 1929. Sometimes NGS has tied one of the stations, and it gets adjusted on NAVD 1988. But that value won't be in these books.

The NGS must not have occupied it after the USGS set it. It doesn't show up in their database in a radial search.

At any rate, thanks. It was more an exercise in finishing out my day rather than something I had to have. Thanks though.

Kris Morgan, post: 325607, member: 29 wrote: The NGS must not have occupied it after the USGS set it. It doesn't show up in their database in a radial search.

At any rate, thanks. It was more an exercise in finishing out my day rather than something I had to have. Thanks though.

I know you were curious about the H, but damn, that V sure makes ya feel good about the work they did and our ability to follow it.

:gammon:

You need to call USGS Fort Collins if you're west of the Mississippi and someplace in GA if you're east of river. They do have the historical data that someone looks up and they will furnish. I did this once.
Sometimes old USGS marks were on old FIRMS.
I think D Doyle has the USGS data in his trick bag too. He has posted info before. I can't remember his new user name.

Kris,

The National Geodetic Survey Data Explorer has a nice Google-type map:
http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/NGSDataExplorer/

Dave

Or look here..

http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/

Before I retired from NGS we had a near complete collection of the old USGS horizontal and vertical control data and it was easy to get to and respond to requests. Since then all of that data has been boxed up and "archived" to an area where virtually no one knows how to find anything. If it's not in their database they don't want to spend much time researching these data. The best bet is to go contact John Foulk ([email protected]) at the USGS office in Rolla, MO. He is very helpful. If he doesn't have it hopefully he'll point you to the person at the Denver office that can research the data. If he is able to find the data for you please take a couple of minutes and shoot an e-mail to the regional geospatial director, Michael Tischler ([email protected]) and recognize the service that you have received. USGS doesn't do anything with this data anymore and I am sure they would just as soon not bother with any of it. Hearing from the professional user community let's them know that this is still valuable and relevant information and can go a long way to helping to preserving these resources.

base9geodesy, post: 325795, member: 7189 wrote: Before I retired from NGS we had a near complete collection of the old USGS horizontal and vertical control data and it was easy to get to and respond to requests. ......

What kind of volume of data are we talking about? Could my state survey society take possession of a copy of the USGS data for the state and host it on its website without special effort?

Both NC and FL have done that. You would need to contact the Denver USGS office to see about getting copies of the horizontal and vertical data. This would be quite a bit of paper. One other option would be to contact the NGS state advisor, Mark Armstrong ([email protected]) and see if he can't get access to the data that NGS has. If he has any trouble he can contact me and I'll be happy to tell him where I think the data is.

We have a copy of it for our area of interest. It is organized by 15' quad sheets. I estimate that it is 12 pages per quad. I would like to see it in a database but the data input would be expensive. We have eight 3 inch ring binders that contain our area of interest.

Steve Corley, post: 325838, member: 23 wrote: We have a copy of it for our area of interest. It is organized by 15' quad sheets. I estimate that it is 12 pages per quad. I would like to see it in a database but the data input would be expensive. We have eight 3 inch ring binders that contain our area of interest.

When I worked at the USACE in the early 80's, they had all of the 15' X 15' quads that were in their district, which was quite large. I would imagine state DOTS's probably also have sets covering the entire state.

In the pre-NAD83 and pre-NAVD88 days, not a lot of distinction among surveyors was made between NGS control and USGS control, so a lot of older survey organizations have sets of data from both sources. A lot of USACE projects in the Pittsburgh district were based on third order USGS control just because it was closer to the project than NGS control.

I discovery a while back that one of our projects from back in the 60 was based on the elevation of a triangulation station, published to the nearest meter but when you converted it to feet it showed to the thousandth. In later documents there was a datum equation. USGS had put a third order elevation on the tri station. Fortunately it was only about 0.25 feet and it's partner about 3 miles away was built from the same control.