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Summer of Surveying:

2023 Benchmark Hunt

By NYSAPLS Public Relations Committee

This past summer, the New York State Association of Professional
Land Surveyors helped the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) in their
decade long pursuit to update our nation’s mapping database, with
the help of the public, in their final push towards the September 30,
2023 deadline. For the last 200 years, the nation’s foundational
mapping infrastructure has relied on hundreds of thousands of
survey markers set in the ground across the country. The NOAA’s
NGS set out to update the database to take advantage of modern
technology and improve the accuracy.
Once again, surveyors from across New York State, and the
nation, showed this profession’s unrelenting quest for adventure
during the #BenchmarkHunt campaign. Over the summer, members
and engaged professionals expanded their sights and went
international. Submissions came in from all over the globe. From
control points to surveying benchmarks, it is clear that surveyors
are never truly out of the office. Curiosity and pursuit for navigation
will always remain.
From Royal Dockyard in Bermuda, Bill Whimple, LS shared
a control point that was originally used by Colonial British
Military services.
DJ McCutcheon, Jr., LS, shared a survey monument from the
Acropolis in Greece.
Lem Morrison, LS, stumbled upon the famous Arago Line
audiences might remember from the Da Vinci Code. The “Arago”
line is a meridian that runs through the Paris observatory. It is the
French equivalent of the Greenwich meridian. It was named for
Francois Arago, a surveyor/scientist/politician in the 18th Century
who refined the measurement of the line across France.
These long-standing markers exhibit what surveyors all know to
be true, that surveyors are continuing the work of forefathers and
pioneers. Surveying is one of the world’s oldest professions and
we are reminded of this tremendous fact when we discover
original benchmarks.
The modernization of the surveying profession has transformed
the practices and methods, but benchmarks and control points
found across the globe anchor the work and will continue to serve
as a guiding principle for generations to come.

12 EMPIRE STATE SURVEYOR / VOL. 59 • NO 6 / 2023 • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER