Survey Says Traditional Cache

As part of that, I've been very interested in Benchmarks too, just more things to find, but you don't have to be as stealthy when finding these.

So a lot (but not all) of my hides are going to be near benchmarks.

This particular one is at KS1898

Enjoy.

Benchmarks are basically professional survey points. They are kept track of in a big database by The National Geodetic Survey, which is a Federal Governmental agency that is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Not all benchmarks are loggble.

Not all benchmarks are from the same government agency.

Not all benchmarks are of the same type, and representing the same types of measurements.

The database entries that contain all the Latitude and Longitude and height and elevation and all kinds of other engineering data about the Benchmark, are known as Datasheets. They are very dense and difficult to read, but contain a lot of engineering information in one place, and incredibly valuable if you know how to decipher it all.

The database of benchmarks that are kept track of in Geocaching.com is just a one-time snapshot of the ever-changing database of the NGS, that was taken sometime in June of the year 2000.

The database of the NGS keeps track of benchmarks from many agencies, but not all, and not all the benchmarks of some of the agencies that it does track. I have found benchmarks that are from National Geodetic Survey (formerly called U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey), United States Geological Survey, Army Corps of Engineers, and California Department of Transportation.

If you want to know more about benchmarks, and there's a lot more to know, check out the many good articles on Geocaching.com about benchmarks, check out the Benchmarking forum on here, or contact me, I have learned a lot about them, and I'll help you out.