Attended the Willamette Stone - 150 Event

I had a great time at the Willamette Stone - Oregon 150 Event. About 10:00AM my #2 son, Christopher, and I walked downhill to the Willamette Stone. Stonework and three benches have been added since my last visit. Bill Glenn (PLS 609) gave a fascinating talk and Jeanne helped with the demonstration of the very early Young & Sons, Philadelphia solar compass. About 10:45 Christopher and I walked up the path to the parking area where we listened to the program until 11:40 when I took him to work. I returned for the rest of the program. I took photos of the three cakes -- a white cake, chocolate cake and a carrot cake -- with three different decorations. I had several interesting conversations with geocachers especially about the upcoming Grant County Geocoin Challenge.

Willamette Stone - Oregon 150, Saturday, May 30, 2009

On Saturday, May 30th, there will be a celebration of the Oregon 150th Birthday and the 50th Anniversary of the Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon - part of the National Society of Professional Surveyors geocache program.

Come celebrate Oregon's 150th birthday and the start of a new series of caches about the Surveying history of Oregon. There will be historical surveying re-enactments, survey history presentations, geocaching presentation to kick off the cache series and celebration of the improvements to one of Oregon's most historically significant state parks. Limited edition collector coin. Come join the fun from 10am-2pm.

Geocaching and Benchmarking in Oregon

On Saturday, May 16th, my #2 son, Christopher, and I spent the day geocaching and benchmarking. We found several NGS benchmarks and several traditional caches in the morning. We saw the Southern Pacific Steam Engine 1785 on display in Woodland, Oregon near a benchmark. When we were on an overpass looking for benchmarks a policeman pulled up behind my parked car and walked up to question me as someone reported that we were stealing guard rails (luckily he had heard about geocaching!). By far the most interesting part of the day was spent exploring the area around the former Chemawa Indian School and the Chemawa Cemetery. In the afternoon we did a Virtual in Keizer, Oregon before heading back.