Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1890-01-25
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MARVELLOUS WELLS.
some OF THE WONDERS FOUND
BY JOHN w. WRIGHT.


Wells That Roar and Wells That Boil.
Some Are Hot and Others Are Cold.
Electric Wells Are Very Comnon-A
Few of the Most Noteworthy.
Algona, kossuth county, Ia, was former
y the proud possessor Of g roaring wei Of
the typical sort, but as nothing has been
written about it for the past five or six years,
l am inclined to the belief that it has long
since gone the way OF Jedda's lion land did
cease TO roar" When it was in active opera
ton it was only forty-ive feet deep; shallow
as it was it seems TO have been pretty close
to the place denied so vehemently by niger
soil, as the waters were boiling hot and gave
off gas strongly iu1pregnated with sulphur.
Polk county, Neb., Is well provided with
wells which roar and ebb and flow with an
unseen tide, having between dozen and
twenty OF these remarkable culosities.
There are hours, regular and uniform, in
which the air viii rush and with a loud,
Kissing sound, and again an equal number Of
hours when it seems that all the air in the
Platte valley viii be sucked into their cavern
Gus depths.
The period Of this ebb and flow does not
seem to depend upon either the seasons or
the state Of the weather, but are thought to
be somewhat regulated by the direction OF
the wind The farmers in Polk, Butler and
Colfax counties. the three counties best pro-
vided with tide regulated, air expeling wells,
all of which seem to be about the same depth
and 70 have struck the same porous strata,
believe their wells TO be in some way con-
nected with the Platte river II any scien-
tific reasons have ever been given in explana-
ton of the phenomena these roaring wells
present, il has escaped the writer's notice.
That there are scientific reasons why these
oddities should exist, he has not the least
doubt.
ELECTRIC WELLS.
Electric wells are quite numerous through
out the United States, OF different depths and
located at any height from ten feet TO 1000
feet above the SEA level The people ID the
vicinity of ore of these local rarities always
believe theirs to be the only genuine electric
well in existence, whereas IL seems to be the
rule rather than the exception 70 strike more
or less magnetism, which, in most every case,
imparcs electrical qualities to the water in
all drilled wells having depth Of over coo
feet.
On the McGinnis lot in Ithaca these is an
electric well so strongly impregnated with
the subtle fluid that water cannot be drawn
except with a rope. It developed its cleo
t-ical qualities all of q sudden and almost
shocked the life out Of the matron McGinnis
when she attempted to draw up water with
the old chain windlaSs which had done SER
vice many years
John Y. FarweiI's farm near Montezuma,
La, is provided with most wonderful cleo
trical well, which is over 1000 feet deep. 1t
possesses undoubted medicinal qualities in a
remarkable degree, and is to the people of
Powsheik county what Ponce de Leon hoped
Florida would prove to be to him
Wells which are veritable paradoxes in
their nature, and which, instead of giving
forth cooling draught to the tired and foot
sore wayfarer, give him water at the boiling
point, are more numerous than the electric
wells Of which l have told you, even exceed
ing in number the frozen wells, of which
mention viii be made further on As a gem
eral thing these boiling wells are very deep,
but cases in which heated water has been
struck at a surprising short distance from
the surface are not unknown.
Az Seymour, Ind, On the farm of John NJ
q
by 7yorknaen engaged IN digging a well, when
only seven feet from the top of the ground
" hen the water was caught in vessels and
allowed to cool 1t deposited fine sand, in
which local geologist claimed to have found
dust from both diamonds and rubies
a well on the premises Of Dr. Il Lane, at
Portland, Ore, from which WAFER for drink
Ing and cooking purposes had been used for
years, in February, 1885, took a turn at Civ
ing water which, in the doctors language,
was "a thousand times hotter than boiling"
At Ritzvile, Wash, there is located ''hot7
well, which cannot be said to be a boiling
well, because there IS nothing in it, except air,
TO boil
In sinking the well an immense under
ground cavity was penetrated, which, as soon
rs the drill was withdrawn, belched forth
volumes OF hot air equal 70 q volcanic es-up-
ton Everything is withered within ten feet
OF the hole and the thickest skinned person
cannot bear to pass his hand over the opening.
FBozEs WELLS.
Frozen wells are almost as numerous and
the phenomena they present almost as mex
plicabIe IS that of the boiling wells. The
most noted Of these, perhaps, is the famous
frozen well OF Yakussk, Siberia The natives
Of that region declared To a member Of tire
Russian academy, early in the present cen
fury, that on digging for water IN the vicin-
ity OF the town mentioned they had never
been able to sink through the frozen soil
Investigations proved the truth Of this state
uaent, wtereupon the academy decided Il dig
a Wen TO satisfy their curiosity Work on
the Vel was begun in ISIS, and continued at
intervals for the next sixteen years, when 1t
was abandoned after a depta OF 3S2 fest bad
been reached, every inch Of which was
through frozen ground.
Brandon VI, has rare curiosity IN the
shape of an ice Wei, which was dug in No
veInbeT, 1855. The first fourteen feet OF this
well was a mixture OF clay and gravel, then
q deposit Of twelve feet of hard frozen ma
tsriaI Of tee same KIND At thirty-five feet
it was left So finished. Since that tame, sum
1ner and winter the same, the well has had
two feet of sohdly frozen water at the bot
tom and walls coated with thesaIne material
john W. Wright IN ST Louis Republic.
4 letter from Wellsburg (V. Va.l little
girl says that one of her friends Is 20 De mar