Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1886-01-23

Ak shey were Deepened and Properly
Sased the supply Would be lncreas-
eu ana Power Might be Procured
From Direct Pressure.
1t is ths belief of our most expert
enced artesian we'll men that the gevera
wells in Iankton, while atfofdlng a flow
OF water sufficient Tor the uses to which
IL Is applied, have never been finished
down to the great artesian basin which
underlies most OF southern Dakota
4ankton made the first artesian experi.
ments Ia this. section of the west and
produced the first flowing well in Da
kota or IN any of the contiguous states
or territories. In the pursuit of its
object 1t WAS unaided by the the ex-
perience OF Others and was literally
cropping in the dark. So when a gush of
water rewarded its efforts, at a depth OF
QUO feet, it concluded to let well enough
alone and not run the risk Of losing
what 1t had IL a search for more. Sew
eral wells since sunk in the city and IN
the suburbs have reached about the
same depth and have ended in the same
stratum of water. The artesian wells
here and hereabouts are from $50 to
500 feet in depth.
Experience in other sections and a lit
tie experience in deepening local wells
leads to the conclusion that if oil our
wells were put down a hundred or two
feet the flow wonld be increased four
fold. The great artesian basin which
gives such marvellous spouting wells at
Aberdeen, Groton, Kimball and other
places evidently updellles all the jim
river valley and the Missouri slope.
Here the everything formation is thinner
than 1t is farther north. The basin is
reached at Aberdeen at a little less thun a
Thousand feet. The conclusion is that it
could be reached at this point at less
than seven hundred feet. This c%onclu-
sion Is, OF course, based upon the theory
that we have thus Tar tapped everything
water strata and have not quite reach
ed the snbterranean basin which at Aber-
deem possesses a lifting fosce of over q
hundred pounds to the square inch. So
positive arc our well borers of the cor
rectness OF their theory that they are
anxious to make an experiment.
They do not believe, however, that it
Is advisable to deepen any of the exist
ing wells, for the reason that all OF them
ate lmperfectly caBed. TO ensure the
tiow for all time to come the bore should
be soiidly oased from the surface down
to the water supply. It will not do to
have q break anywhere in the casing.
because through such sn opening the
water escapes, finally washes out an
opening and one-half or two-thirds the
ascending column of water
is lost before it resohes the
surface. This is clearly the
case at the city well which supplies the
reservoirs. When the water vein was
FIRST opened ia that well it lifted a pipe
full thirty feet above the surface. Now
it will not raise moro than two feet and
with a largely diminished flow. The
cause is as explained above. The casing
is defective. In fact this well is not
cased at all throughout two-thirds of
it's length. The public generally would
like to see a properly made well put
down in the city park. With such a well
pumping machinery could be dispensed
with and the supply increased four-fold.
Why not try it? There is also a prob
ability OF procuring an abundance of
power for machinery from the artesian
force beneath us.