ET 6 WAC
State/County/Quad: PA/Lackawanna/ArielLocation: N 41°29.895' W 075°28.834'
Elevation: roughly 2218 ft.
Designation: ET 6 WAC
Setting: Outcropping Bedrock
Type: Electronic Traverse Disk
Year: 1963
Recovered: 4 November 2004
My official report to USGS
On a cold, windy day in Northeastern Pennsylvania, Rich and I set out to hunt down ET 6, a USGS electronic traverse station we'd spotted on some of our maps. It's located on State Game Lands near Archbald, PA. We had a pretty good idea where to find it, and figured we'd combine the benchmark hunt with a little squirrel hunting as well. Well, the squirrels were nowhere to be found (I suppose they were smart and stayed huddled in their nests, out of the cold) but we did track down the benchmark. Though we were frozen solid by the time we reached the mark, we managed to take a few photos and measurements, and we made an interesting observation: on our control diagram, this mark is labeled ET 6. The disk itself is stamped ET 5. This was quite an unusual "hunt"!
USGS Official Description, 1963:
Cortez Post Office, 0.2 mi N. of, along hwy. to T-rd., thence 2.1 mi left to field rd. N., thence 1.2 mi N. along field rd. to T-rd. left and station on left; 56 ft from center of T-rd. intersection; in stone flush with ground; standard tablet stamped "ET 6 WAC 1963"
| Plane Coordinates (feet) | Latitude | Longitude | ||
| X = 2,621,525 | Y = 493,266 | 41 29 53.40 | -75 28 51.27 | |
 |
...The mysterious mark. A small piece has been broken off the disk, and we plan to return and reattach it somehow. |
|
 An eyelevel view of the mark set in outcropping bedrock. ... |
||
 Looking west-northwest across the valley. ... |
||
 |
..."Hunting" an elusive USGS benchmark, ET 6 (or ET 5) WAC. |
|
 |
...This one tried to run, but it couldn't hide from us. |
|