The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1882-08-20
WELLS
On h Plains and IN the Mountain
Country.

ohOuhtoih SOuibiJ WIN lcBdiu W IulS
question, in pursuance of the Congress
sional appropriation of 1880. The ac-
tual work done under that appropria-
ton was the boring of a we'll eight hun
bred feet deep in the valley of the Ar
kansas, neal Fort Lyon, Colorado. At
that point the work vas stopped, by rea-
son of the exhaustion of the appropria-
ton and because the biologists report
ed that the location was unfavorable.
DR.. White has come to the conclusion
that it is ~impracticable to bore artesian
wells for %irrigating purposes on the
great plains, and he gives his reasons.
There are, in brief, that the rock strata
of the plains have their edges upturned
against the western mountain chain;
that whatever water is to be found by
boring must be found in the pervious
strata, being carried in them from
where it entered at the mountain edge,
the local rainfall being insufficient to
have any ~perceptible effect, and the i'm,
p~ervious rocks preventing it joining the
water below. The formations in which
be would expect the water to be held
and carried are the Jurassic and the
Triasslc. On the plains between the
Arkansas and the South Platte, the
former would be reached at a depth of
not less than two thousand feet, and
and the latter at from six to eight hun
dred feet deeper. AS you go eastward
this depth might be expected to de-
crease materially and rapidly; but the
need of an artificial supply of water al
so decreases in the same proportion.
Taking the annual rainfall, which
rapidly decreases westward, it is shown
in the first place that the whole supply
available for artesian wells must come
from the rainfall on the mountain area,
and that a very large proportion of this
is carried away by the rivers. That
which seeps into the rocks would be
carried eastward by their downward
dip in that direction, and would rise to
the surface as tapped through the i'm
pervious strata everything the water-fl-
trated rocks. The supply, however,
would be limited to the infiltration
which would come from the mountain
region, and would be a mere trihe as
compared with the amount required
for general irrigation. The cost of a
flowing well between the Arkansas and
the South Platte would probably not
be less than six thousand dollars; il it
should supply one cubic foot per second,
it would on an average computation ir-
rigate one hundred acres of land which
would be a first cost of sixty dollars per
acre. But the average flow of the Cal
ifornia artesian wells is only one-tenth
this amount; so the non-practicability of
artesian wells on the plains east of the
Rocky Mountains may be said to be rea-
sonably demonstrated; land atsixty dol
lars an acre would hardly pay; but the
probabilities are decidedly against such
a flow. 1t is not at all likely that wells
there would exceed the flow of the Cali
fornia wells, ven if water were reached
at all, which could in no case be quite GER
tain; but if it were reached the flow would
be more likely to be less than the Califor-
mia well-flow than more. But at that
average flow, one-tenth of a cubic foot
per second, n well would irrigate but
ten acres, and thus the land would
stand at six hundred dollars an acre as
the first cost for artesian wells. which
is quite out of the question. The ex-
perience of private parties has been: a
well at Denver eight hundred feet deep;
one at Cheyenne nine hundred feet;
one at Carson On the Kansas Pacific,
thirteen hundred feet deep; all failures.
Other borings at various places from
fifty to n hundred feet deep, failed to
get any flow of water worth mentioning.
The conclusion, therefore, is that in
general the attem pit to water the great
plains by means of artesian wells must
be considered practically hopeless; but
it may be possible to successfully bore
wells for other purposes. A well CIV
ing a very small amount of water would
furnish sufficient to water a great deal
of stock, and its value in some of the
grassy but waterless ranges would be
very great. 1t is quite possible that
carefully located wells for this purpose
might prove immensely remunerative
to the cattle-raisers, and throw open
large stretches of grazing land now con-