Whipple Hill and Bloody Bluff under attack!!!

The highest point in Lexington is Whipple Hill. Or is it?

If you look in Google Earth, you will not find it marked at all... unless you happen to look in the backyard of a house on Bryant Rd. in Lexington. There, at the puny elevation of 184 feet, is the mark for Whipple Hill!!!

We all know that in reality, it towers 374 feet above sea level, affording views of Mount Wachusett to the west, and even Grand Monadnock, in New Hampshire, to the northwest.

What's behind this blasphemous attack on Whipple Hill? Are those west-coast-centric Googlers jealous of our soaring landmarks?

But that's not all. Google Earth has further insulted Lexington by placing Bloody Bluff almost half a mile north of the Battle Road! At least it's still in Lexington, but it is located up near Lincoln Labs just off Wood Street... Ridiculous! If the British regulars had tried to take that route back to Boston to escape the Minutemen, they would have soon found themselves floundering through the extensive bogs of Tophet Swamp!

However, now it's time to reveal the dirty truth behind these attacks on our town's identity, and what has been done to fix it. Yes, friends, it should be fixed the next time Google Earth refreshes its data from the official source.

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It turns out that Google Earth is not really the culprit in this case. They are simply pulling information from the official source for named places in the United States, the US Geological Survey's "Geographic Names Information System." So it turns out that the GNIS was wrong. After verifying the incorrect data in the GNIS, I sent them the correct information about Whipple Hill and Bloody Bluff in a couple of emails. They agreed to change their database. Unfortunately, (as explained in the GNIS letter below) their model for elevation still cheats Whipple Hill of its true glory, resulting in a listed height of only 361 feet. This, despite their own USGS topographic maps showing a benchmark at 374 feet! For shame!

Side note: I could not find the round brass benchmark when I was up on Whipple Hill recently. Was it removed? Is this another part of the long-running conspiracy to discredit Whipple Hill, tracing back to the time it was known as Mount Whipple? And by the way, who sent those glaciers through here which resulted in Whipple Hill and all the other land around here being ground down to almost nothing? And...

Back to the GNIS errors: I couldn't figure out any simple mathematical reason for the two errors, such as transposing digits or substituting Degree-Minute-Second (DMS) notation for the fractional degrees used in GNIS. There doesn't appear to be any systematic error, and I only located two sites in Lexington which were mislabeled. If anyone finds other badly placed landmarks, please contact gnis_manager@usgs.gov, with a message similar to the ones below. (And add a note to this blog.)

The GNIS is an interesting system. They have a somewhat clumsy query interface to locate geographic names and features.

At the time I noticed the problems with Whipple Hill and Bloody Bluff, I was trying to find the name of a prominent hill at the corner of Lincoln Street and I-95. Sadly, it is not included in the GNIS. If anyone knows the name of this hill, I'd be happy to hear about it! If not, perhaps the Town of Lexington can sell naming rights to the hill, with the income going into the mowing/maintenance fund for the town conservation lands...???

Back to the attack on Whipple Hill and Bloody Bluff:

Here's the interesting (??) correspondence resulting from the problems with the two landmarks. For both letters, the GNIS response precedes my message to them. First is the message concerning Bloody Bluff:

From: Roger L Payne [mailto:rpayne@usgs.gov] On Behalf Of gnis_manager@usgs.gov
Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2007 6:23 PM
To: Paul Knight
Cc: Louis A Yost; Maria L McCormick; Jane A Messenger; Kenneth B Fox; Sandra V Hoyle-Moore; Renee A Hughes; cpmatthys@usgs.gov; Jennifer E Runyon; Dwight S Hughes
Subject: Re: Incorrect info in GNIS: Whipple Hill, Lexington, Massachusetts

We have investigated and verified your suggested correction, and we have made the change to the entry in the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), the nation’s official geographic names repository. The geographic coordinates were incorrect as you indicate. The adjusted coordinates are precisely on the top of the feature, but yielded an elevation of only 361 feet. We have included below the FAQ from that area of our website that explains elevation. We have included in the description field of the entry that there are reports of the elevation being 374 feet. The corrected entry is now available at that website. Thank you once again for your interest.

How accurate is the elevation data in the GNIS Database? How was it measured?
The elevation data in GNIS are not official.
Only the geographic name and locative attributes are official.

The elevation data are from the National Elevation Dataset of the U.S. Geological Survey for the primary location of the feature (Coordinates Sequence = 1 in the Feature Detail Report).

The Primary coordinate values for communities are taken at the center of the "original" community meaning the city hall, main post office, main intersection, etc. For other areal features, coordinates are taken at the approximate center, and for reservoirs at the dam. The primary coordinates for features classified as summit (all uplifted features), are recorded at the highest point and for linear features (stream, valley, and arroyo) at the mouth.

The elevation figures in the GNIS are not official and do not represent precisely measured or surveyed values. The data are extracted from digital elevation models of the National Elevation Dataset for the given coordinates and might differ from elevations cited in other sources, including those published on USGS topographic maps. Published map data represent precisely surveyed points that often are marked by a benchmark or triangle on the map and a benchmark seal physically anchored into the ground at the site.

The variances between the GNIS elevation data and other sources generally arise from acceptable tolerances and will be most evident for features such as summits, where precision is of more concern, and where the local relief (rate of change of elevation) is more prominent. When the elevation figure is of particular note, for example the highest point in the State, then the actual elevation is recorded in the description field of the feature.

If the elevation figure for a particular feature seems significantly inaccurate, the feature coordinates might need adjusting and/or the elevation model data for those coordinates are not correct. For most purposes of general information, the elevation figures are sufficiently accurate. Efforts are continuously being made to improve the accuracy of both GNIS and NED data, the results of which will be reflected at this site.

For Lou Yost
Manager GNIS
703.648.4552

"Paul Knight" 02/13/2007 12:17 AM

To: gnis_manager@usgs.gov cc: "Karen Mullins" Subject: Incorrect info in GNIS: Whipple Hill, Lexington, Massachusetts

Esteemed GNIS Manager,

I'd like to bring to your attention an incorrect location and elevation for an entry in the USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).

Whipple Hill, ID# 612259, is incorrectly located in GNIS, over half a mile west of its true location, at a point with no distinguishing elevation (190 feet). The incorrect coordinates are 42.4423177N -71.1961663W.

The correct location is approximately 42.4422N -71.1837W, elevation 374 feet. This is correctly shown on USGS topographic maps, in the Lexington quadrangle.

This is a matter of some pride for Lexington, as this is the highest point in town.

We hope you'll make the correction to the GNIS database at your earliest convenience.

Best regards,
Paul Knight
Lexington Conservation Steward
Cc: Karen Mullins, Lexington Conservation Administrator
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Here is the message for Bloody Bluff:

From the GNIS folks:

Thank you once again. We have investigated and verified your suggested correction for the location of Bloody Bluff near Lexington in Massachusetts, and we have made the change to the entry in the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), the nation’s official geographic names repository. The corrected entry is now available at that website. Thank you once again for your interest.

For Lou Yost
Manager GNIS
703.648.4552

"Paul Knight" 02/13/2007 12:54 AM

To: gnis_manager@usgs.gov cc: "Karen Mullins" Subject: Incorrect info in GNIS: Bloody Bluff, Lexington, Massachusetts

Esteemed GNIS Manager,

I'd like to bring to your attention an incorrect location for an entry
in the USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).

Bloody Bluff, ID# 607039, is incorrectly located in GNIS, about 0.4
miles north of its true location. The incorrect coordinates are
42.453706N -71.2633902W.

The correct location is approximately 42.4475N -71.2651W. The elevation
at the top of Bloody Bluff is approximately 230 feet, and approximately
200 feet at the base.

This is a matter of some pride for Lexington, as this is site of an
engagement between the Minutemen and the British, along the Battle Road.
You may wish to refer to the National Park Service map of the Minute Man
National Historic Park, where this point is labeled simply "The Bluff."

(see http://www.nps.gov/mima/planyourvisit/upload/MIMA%20Park%20Map.pdf)

We hope you'll make the correction to the GNIS database at your earliest
convenience.

Best regards,
Paul Knight
Lexington Conservation Steward
Cc: Karen Mullins, Lexington Conservation Administrator