The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1886-09-30
a suerERRAneAN MYSTERY.

| The Theories Regarding theOyerf low.
KS ing Well at Belle PLANE, Iowa
A Des Moines correspondent of The
| CHICAGO Times writes: So far but little
| has been said to account for the phe-
nomenon of the great flowing well at
| Belle Plaine. A state university pro-
lessor has visited the well, and has
hazarded the guess that it is fed from
| Lake Benton, Minnesota. This Is IL.
| genious, and has some basis of proba-
| bility. But it is just as well to consider
| some physical facts in connection with
the well.
Take a pack of p~laying-cards and
push them SO that an edge OF each viii
lap past its upper fellow. This will II
l~ustrate the rock formations of Iowa
when looking west from any point in
northwest Iowa. The lower card rep.
resents the Trenton limestone, whilr
half 4 dozen cards above it can stand
for the ead-bearing and Niagara series.
Cedar Rapids rests we'll toward the TOP
of the latter group, while Belle Plaine,
thirty-five miles west, probably lies on
the thin layer of Deyonian rock, which
is scantily exposedin Buchanan county.
1t can be stated as a fact that the Nj
agara rocks are full of assures and
small caverns. Whether this be trus
of the rocks underlying Belle Plains
can only be inferred on the action oil
the various artesian well at that place.
but this would seem to be competent
evidence that the cavernous condition
of the rocks still! prevails at that place.
According t. the chart of the Iowa
railway commissioners Belle Flame
station is S54 feet above the ocean level
The surface surroundings of the place
do not warrant the hypothesis that thu
source of supply of its great well is
near at hand. But by reference again
to the railway commissioners chart il
will be seen that the Iowa river, which
runs not far from Belle PLANE, has a
long and t%ortuous course nearly to the
north boundary of the state, and the
Milwaukee railway station at Britt,
where the Iowa slips over the prairie,
stands in altitude $50 feet higher than
Belle Plane.
But the Belle PLANE well is said 10 be
1Sj feet deep. Probably, il it cOnld ba
pipcd, the water would rise say two
hundred feet above the bottom of the
well. Now, if the well is fed from Lake
Benton, Minnesota, as the Iowa
City sc enlist assumes, according to g
w~ell-known law of hydrostatics the
Belle Plaine people would have more
worry even than now, for Spirit lake,
Storm lake, and Lake Benton all lie APP
prJXimately 1900 feet above sea level,
or. say $50 feet above the bottom of the
Belle Plaine spouter. Hence, instead OF
merely gushing out, the water would
have Il geyser-shoot upward of hun
dreds of feet. The Iowa City theory
does not work any better than the zone
that went into the well Sunday.
The only tenable theory in the light
of present facts is that the Belle Plaine
we'll is fed from q leak in the Iowa riv-
er-or possibly from the Cedar for that
matter. And if it is water from the
Iowa that has found Il long tissure af-
fording a su~bterranean waterway under
Belle PLANE it has found that assure
somewhere i'll Marshall county, which
satisfies the conditions of the case. For
the Iowa river has a fall of about Sc
feet between Marshalltown and Belle
PLANE. Add this So feet as u pressure
head and it will, after allowing for
waste BY leakage and friction, supply
the power that pushes the water into
Belle Plaine streets. But if it is the &C.
dar hat is leaking ut such a rate
through the well the weak spot is some
where above Charles City. say about
the state line.
1t might be urged that the leakage
from showers conveyed through the
soil would answer the conditions, and
in connection it would be said that the
gravel beds along Iowa streams, all OF
which lie above the Belle PLANE well,
would afford the great supply squirting
out. But if this were true tine name
of the origin of the well would be the
considered scientifically.
1t is bat far to mention while dis
cussing the latter view that southwest
Wisconsin affords some wonderful
A single spring runs a flour
ing-mill at SpIingville, Wis, while six
miles away III early times another noble
fountain used to run a saw-mill. These
springs burst out within three hundred
feet of the highest altitude between the
Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers, and
the watershed for their supply is very
narrow. Fayette county. Iowa, affords
some wonderful springs with quite as
areas of supply as those in Wis
consin. All these springs certainly de-
pend on the melted snow and rains,
but they bubble gayly all the year
around, with little variation in the
amount of discharge. These springs
the view that the water runs
through rock assures, and so the view
is here fully maintained that the bed OF
the Iowa river needs patching in Mar
shall county, and when patched the
PLANE folks will get their well
,,nIor oOp+roI