City of Johnston

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Trail Marking System

Trail markers have been placed along a portion of the City of Johnston’s trail system on the trails behind the Pioneer buildings, through the Beaver Creek Natural Resource Area and to the beginning of the Trestle to Trestle trail. The markers are labeled with numbers which represent a U.S. National Grid coordinate for a particular location. In case of an emergency on the trail, the person in trouble can call 911 and give a dispatcher the coordinates of where they are located and get help quickly and efficiently.
The markers are placed on the trail at strategic places so that they can be seen from one marker to the next. In this manner, they are not placed equally spaced along the trail, but within sight distance of each other. Should an accident occur, the victim should be able to see a marker from any location on the marked trails.

The markers use a specific coordinate system called the U.S. National Grid or USNG for short. The US National Grid and its military equivalent have been in use by the mapping community for years. This domestic equivalent to the USNG has been particularly useful to the first responder community responding to national disasters like Hurricane Katrina. Rescue workers trained in using the grid can assist anywhere in the country and with a map and coordinate get to their destination not depending totally on visual landmarks.

For more info on the U.S. National Grid check out http://www.fgdc.gov/usng or http://mississippi.deltastate.edu/ or http://mississippi.deltastate.edu/uploads/media/USNG_Instructions.pdf