14 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 45, No. 4 Featured Article those that are one, hard to get to and two, ones that nobody had been to for some time. Such was that of PID PE 1789 PREBLE set in 1944. A short boat ride with a picnic lunch and a wife who likes boat rides to islands for picnic lunches seemed to be a perfect setup. After said short boat ride, PREBLE was searched for and found. All set up and collecting data. A tasty lunch. Pictures of a lovely day on Frenchman Bay in Maine and the world was good. Mission accomplished. continued The photo with the dam in the background has a little different setup in research. We knew we were to go fishing at a sporting camp in the middle of Maine. Deep in the woods. Our mode of transportation was by float plane. Another of my favorite things and certainly checks the “adventure box.” A perusal of the NGS Data Explorer indicated a monument PID RF0729 MILL near the camps. A call ahead to the owner indicated that, yes, they knew of it and seen it many times. OPUS on Maine coast. Boring—doesn’t check that “lost and forgotten box.” Out come the old USGS paper quad sheets—online anyway. Looking around the area I see a benchmark indicated near the outlet to the lake. Ah ha. The X-90 gets loaded along with the fishing gear. On arrival to the camps, I inquire about said benchmark near the outlet. “At the dam?” they ask. Okay this is going to be fun. The “adventure box” is checked twice now. My father, who understands my thrill to find monuments as much as I do his thrill to catch fish, agrees we should take a break and take a look. Recovery was straightforward. The dam was constructed to control lake levels and retain water during the log driving days and remains operational. The monument was set in 1955, probably for elevation control with all recorded indications of being “lost and forgotten.” This was a good opportunity and candidate to enter an existing solid passive mark into the OPUS Shared Solutions database. A new PID was born—BBDP09. Mission accomplished. It’s obvious to me now why Mark was enthusiastic about OPUS Shared Solutions. This type of treasure hunt checks a lot of boxes for this surveyor too. It’s fun. As an aside, I attended (virtually) the Oregon PLSO 2022 Conference. Those of you who attended David Doyle’s session learned of the request by NGS to make a final push for submitting OPUS Shared Solution observations on passive marks. Observations made before the end of the year 2022 will be incorporated into the upcoming National Spatial Reference System (NSRS) calculations. Marks of primary importance have been selected by NGS. Head to the site https:// geodesy.noaa.gov/GPSonBM/index.shtml for more information. The search for monuments in my upcoming travel plans has begun. I’m looking forward to some adventures and hoping to contribute to this effort as well. Won’t you join me? Dave Wellman is licensed in Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, and Maine. He established D. Wellman Surveying LLC in 1999. He is a lifetime member of PLSO, he has served as Midwest Chapter President twice and has been key in organizing many workshops over the years, as well as being a regular attendee of monthly chapter meetings.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Nzc3ODM=