Benchmarking (hobby)

Benchmarking, also known as benchmark hunting, is a hobby activity in which participants find benchmarks (also known as survey markers or geodetic control points). The term "benchmark" is used only to refer to survey markers that designate a certain elevation, but hobbyists often use the term benchmarks to include triangulation stations or other reference marks. They typically then log their finds online. Like geocaching, the activity has become popular since 1995, propelled by the availability of online data on the location of survey marks (with directions for finding them) and by the rise of hobbyist-oriented websites.