Bedrock Mortar - Siskiyou County, CA - New World Ancient Evidence on Waymarking.com

I SOOOOO wish I had dug out the contents of the bedrock mortar when I discovered it, because if I had, I would have found the benchmark I was searching for at the bottom! I realized this after getting back home and finding out that this mortar holds a NGS benchmark after reading the datasheet. I was actually looking for benchmarks on a topography map and this benchmark is listed as BM 4091. The NGS benchmark is PID MW0680.

The NGS datasheet perfectly describes this bedrock mortar, which I found by accident, and I will return here another time to log this benchmark as well. I'm POSITIVE that this mortar is NOT man-made! I've seen other bedrock mortars around the Klamath Basin just like this one and will waymark those as well, when I come across them. I find it disrespectful that the NGS folks monumented a benchmark at the bottom of this mortar, I'm sure someone HAD to have known that this mortar had historical significance and should not have been disturbed.

The datasheet to the benchmark (and mortar) reads as follows:
DESCRIBED BY NATIONAL GEODETIC SURVEY 1954 13.4 MI SW FROM MERRILL. 0.2 MILE EAST ALONG STATE HIGHWAY 39 FROM MERRILL HIGH SCHOOL, THENCE 1.0 MILE SOUTH ALONG SOUTH MAIN STREET, THENCE 12.2 MILE SOUTHWEST ALONG A GRADED ROAD, ABOUT 50 YARDS NORTHWEST OF THE POINT OF A PROMINENT ROCK RIDGE, ON THE SOUTHWEST FOOT OF THE RIDGE, IN THE TOP OF A 6- BY 6-FOOT FLAT BOULDER (WITH A HOLE 1 FOOT DEEP AND 10 INCHES IN DIAMATER IN ITS CENTER) PROJECTING 1 FOOT ABOVE THE GROUND, 23 FEET NORTHEAST OF THE CENTER LINE OF THE ROAD, 1.6 FEET NORTHWEST OF THE CENTER OF THE HOLE, AND ABOUT 4 FEET HIGHER THAN THE ROAD.

This area where the mortar was found is on the boundary of the Lower Klamath Lake National Wildlife Refuge and was once full of deeper water, providing much wildlife and sustenance for the native tribes in the area (most likely either Klamath or Modoc Indians) before white settlers arrived in the mid 1800s. When the Klamath Water Act was enacted in 1905, the Bureau of Reclamation (then known as the Reclamation Service) began a slow process of damming up nearby rivers to create reservoirs for irrigation to hundreds of thousands of acres of marshland that would be converted to homesteads for wartime vets and other local families through the late 1940s.

*Directions to Waymark*
The Trailhead coordinates start at State Line Rd and becomes Dorris Brownell Rd going south. You will pass through two barbwire gates (that keep horses and cattle contained) on the way to this waymark. The dirt road is VERY chalky and unpassable if muddy or wet. A 4x4 is required for this stretch of road, it can become pretty rocky over parts. The mortar will be on the left side of the road when you approach a rocky outcrop that forms a bend.

Trailhead: N 41° 59.940 W 121° 35.948 Type: Bedrock Mortar How did you find this "Ancient Evidence": Other Terrain Rating:

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