The document recorded in Camden County Deed Book 85 at page 195 (also recorded in Miller County Deed Book 75 at page 312), by which the State of Missouri acquired Lake of the Ozarks State Park, contains the statement:
"All that part of lands hereinafter described lying above the project boundary of Project No. 459, Missouri. The project boundary is defined by contour lines at various elevations, which elevations are referred to United States Geological Survey, Bench Mark at Bagnell, Missouri, which has an elevation of 586.742 feet above Mean Gulf Sea Level at Biloxi, Mississippi. Said elevations are recited herein for each item of land described giving in the description the acreage above said elevations."
United States Geological Survey Benchmark "589" (NGS PID: JD0227) was described in information published by the United States Geological Survey, dated 1932, as being a standard tablet stamped "589 VRSLS." This information also indicated that the old aluminum tablet was replaced by a bronze tablet on May 15, 1929. The bronze USGS disk was recovered by personnel of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources in late 1999 or early 2000 and found to be set in the vertical face of a rock outcrop.
On February 7, 2000, personnel of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources conducted differential leveling operations to transfer the orthometric height from Benchmark "589" to Missouri Geographic Reference System Station "ML-28." The leveling was double run with a digital level and invar bar code level rods, using Double Simultaneous observation procedures. Loop closure was 0.001 meter.
NAVD 1988 orthometric height at Benchmark "589" is published as 178.630 meters equal to 586.06 feet.
NAVD 1988 orthometric height at "ML-28" is published as 177.24 meters equal to 581.5 feet.
The orthometric height of Benchmark "589" is 586.742 feet equal to 178.84 meters referenced to Mean Gulf Sea Level at Biloxi, Mississippi.
Therefore, the orthometric height of "ML-28" is 582.18 feet equal to 177.45 meters referenced to Mean Gulf Sea Level at Biloxi, Mississippi.
The elevations called for in descriptions around Lake of the Ozarks were determined by actual surveys conducted by the Stone & Webster Engineering Corp. in the late 1920s and early 1930s and were, apparently, all based on the one benchmark previously mentioned. To locate these lines of elevation one would have to retrace the work done by Stone & Webster, using the elevations referenced to Mean Gulf Sea Level at Biloxi, Mississippi.
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Information provided courtesy of Steven E. Weible
