We are all neighbors. Churchtown residents, in particular, depend on older, shallower wells which tend to be low during drought, he adds. He also believes the family spring is one of the oldest in the township. Over the years, family members have found numerous Indian artifacts in the vicinity, including spears and various tools used to hunt and skin animals. This make sense considering the spring is a popular spot for local wildlife to come and drink, Baker says.
Deer still make nightly stops at the spring before retreating into the wilderness before dawn.
Baker has records on the spring dating back to 1870 and, in all that time, it has never gone dry, even during the worst of dry spells, Baker says. Nitrate levels were rising but still under permissible levels as dictated by the state. Baker routinely drinks water from the spring whenever he visits the farm, which he rents to another farmer. His tenants also draw from the spring as their chief source of drinking water. Robert Tobash of the Labor Day Committee Inc., which has sponsored the fund-raising event for 65 years, said Tuesday he wanted to prevent activists from dictating how he would run the shoot.