Like to say...

[PaleoRob]

A big thanks to cindyl for getting the modern part of the culture section together. If you've been happy to see fire lookouts, Osborn fire finders, windmills, or some of the other more modern thing appear as a culture label, it is due to her hard work.
A big thanks in general to the culture team as well. I think that the whole culture thing rocks - it is neat seeing the distribution of different types of cultural artifacts across the US>

[chumley]

Puerto Rico is not a foreign country! ;)

[azbackpackr]

Sorry to interrupt, but I can't help remembering how many people I told I was going to Costa Rica thought I was talking about Puerto Rico. Sad, eh?

[Grasshopper]

@azbackpackr huh? How could any of us ever forget that you went to Costa Rica but some HAZ members did go to Puerto Rico.. like Chums in July'10 and Charger55 in April'12 which I believe is what's being referenced.. ;)

[azbackpackr]

Oh, I know. I was just musing. And they weren't HAZ people who asked me that. I had one lady ask me that about 4 times. I kept trying to explain the difference, but she had no clue about geography.

[DarthStiller]

I know there is at least one other marker that is from a foreign country (chumley)

That sounds like the one from my hike in Serbia last summer on Suva Planina.

[PaleoRob]

Thanks for straightening that up cindyl!

[kingsnake]

There was previous conversation -- mostly in PM -- between me, Outdoor Lover and uhm ... forget (the guy who does 90% of Haz's benchmarking) ... and the decision was stick with one label for all, the reason being that it makes it much easier to find related types of marks.

[azbackpackr]

Not sure where to put this, since there are two forums that mention the various types of survey marks. Since I've been hanging out with a surveyor lately, I've learned that not all of these markers are benchmarks.

So... I recently created two new culture labels for different types of survey markers: one for Azimuth Mark and one for Reference Mark. These are super easy to recognize and identify apart from benchmarks because they have those words, "Azimuth Mark" or "Reference Mark" on them. I have already gone through historically labeled "Benchmarks" and made the change when necessary. Since both of these types of marks have arrows in the middle, it was easier to pick them out even at thumbnail views. There are more survey marker labels in the works, since not all survey disc (or otherwise) marks can be called bench marks. I'll let you know as I create them so you can label your photos accordingly.

Stay tuned for the Great Benchmark Bender of 2013! We got 12 of them near the highways between Snowflake and just past Winslow. We are looking specifically for non-elevated benchmarks. That means that there is NOT a contour line going all the way around the benchmark on a map. Elevated benchmarks are often on tops of peaks, and my companion is not up for the hike these days. Today we'll be looking for them between Flagstaff and Jacob Lake. Cindy, did you know that the big fire tower at Jacob Lake is also a benchmark? I have put in a special request to stop and take time to climb the stairs, if not locked.

[chumley]

Under new HAZ nomenclature, the heirarchy goes something like this:

Survey Marker (there's no label for this seemingly broad category)

[ Fliver ] (this might be the all encompassing label for the above?)

[ Miscellaneous Survey Marker ] - [ Cadastral Survey Marker ] - [ Reference Mark ] - [ Azimuth Mark ] - [ Benchmark ]