[Dupage] DuPage is going hunting in Batavia?

[Dave Donkers]

Hunting? That we can all do? What about licenses? Yep, we’ll be hunting 
innocent, defenseless Geodetic markers, and we don’t need a hunting 
license. If you’re not familiar with them, they are reference points set 
by the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) for use by surveyors to determine 
property lines, town boundaries and to lay out roads. The problem is 
that NGS doesn’t have the resources to keep track of them.

So the USPS has partnered with the National Geodetic Survey since 1963 
to help check on their little babies. That’s where the fun begins. We 
get to go out and run around the countryside like a bunch of kids on a 
scavenger hunt (actually, it is a kind of scavenger hunt) and verify the 
condition of the markers. But on our hunt we have written descriptions 
of where the markers are supposed to be. Our job is to try to find them. 
The USPS has recovered tens of thousands of these markers over the years 
in one of the most successful government – private collaborations ever.

This year, we’ll be going out on the DuPage 2007 Geodetic marker hunt on 
Saturday, March 10th. This year we’ll be looking for markers near Fermi 
National Laboratory in Batavia. Come on out and join in on the fun.

We’ll meet at 0800 for breakfast and organizing at the Harner’s Bakery 
Restaurant at 10 W. State in North Aurora. State is Route 56, and the 
restaurant is one street east of Route 31, just west of the Fox River on 
the south side of State. Please let me know by March 7th if you will be 
coming by so I can let them know how many to expect.

To sign up for the marker hunt or if you have any questions about it, 
you can send me email at: donkers at aps.anl.gov, or call me at home at 
(630) 554-1904.

Lt/C Dave Donkers SN, Cooperative Charting Chairman