Rich and I were browsing the topo maps yesterday, looking at some areas of local historical interest (specifically the area near Winton and Archbald labeled Riverside on the map), when we spotted BM 922.
Riverside; in S. corner of front yard of Riverside Public School No. 8; in S. corner of schoolyard; 42 ft N. of center of rd [of center of U.S. Highway 6, in Horizontal description].; in concrete post; standard tablet stamped “TT 7 T 1932”
We are both certain that we had looked for this benchmark in the past and found nothing, although unfortunately we can’t recall the details of our searches at this point.
Yesterday, we took another look at the area on Google Street View. We were shocked to realize that we could actually see the concrete monument (and even the disk on top) from the Street View! It was right out in the open, atop a grassy slope between a small neighborhood park and a private home.
There is no way we could have missed it in the past, assuming that we had been in the correct spot all those years ago, and assuming the mark was exposed like it is now. Our only hypotheses are that we may indeed have been in the wrong location, or the mark may have been obscured by some brush or landscaping that has since been cleared out.
In any case, it was a very exciting prospect, and we planned to scout out the area and, hopefully, recover the mark today.
This morning was warm, sunny, and gorgeous for late October. Although we expected clouds to roll in for the afternoon, the forecast indicated that dry conditions would remain throughout the day, so we planned our trip for the early afternoon.
As our luck would have it, a heavy shower crossed the valley right at that time. We parked at the small lot adjacent to the neighborhood park and walked to the benchmark. In spite of the rain, we had no trouble verifying the mark’s designation and taking a few photos. It’s just a shame that conditions weren’t conducive to poking around further or taking measurements to add to our recovery note.
The rain was lightening up but everything was now soaked, so we headed home, stopping along the way to pick up a large round pizza from Laura’s Pizza & Hoagies in Montdale. We spent the rest of this now-gloomy afternoon eating pizza while watching a few videos and the movie Beetlejuice, and browsing the topo maps again.