Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 85, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 July 1906 — FREAK KANSAS WATER WELL. [ARTICLE]

FREAK KANSAS WATER WELL.

The Location, on Top of n Hill, Woo Accidental. One of the biggest water wells ever drilled in this part of the country is in the vicipity of the smelter here, says the Kansas City Star’s correspondent at Cherryvale, Kan. The location of it was purely an accident The smelter people were looking for a supply of water for the horses, and decided that it would be better to go to the top of a hill and run a gravity line down to the works than to drill pn the flat and install pumps. The drill had not been working more than three hours when the water came with a great rush and A six-inch pipe was put In and this Is barely sufficient to contain the volume. The pressure is so great that the tank over the fire-engine house Is filled without pumping, and then the well is not working more than one-fourth of the time. If iit were to work all the time it would not only supply all of the departments of the smelter, but the entire town of Cherryvale in addition.

The capacity of the well is a matter of guess, because It has never been allowed to run all day, but it is said to be at least 4,000,000 gallons a day. The drilling of the well has been the talk of the farmers around in the neighborhood and more wells will be drilled in the hope of finding the same vein. The big well is another of the freaks which have been the bane of geologists since the discovery of oil and gas in this part of the State. If there was any other range of hills around here, the presence of the water so near the surface of the ground on top of the hill to the northwest might be explained, but how it happens that the water is within twelve feet of the highest hill in the whole country and with no other hill at fell within reach, is something the people, who think they know something of geology, have been unable to explain.-