Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1890-12-25
SUbTERaANEAN SCIENCE.
Professor Warren Upham Dis
courses Oh Artesian Wells in
the DakOtaS.
Interesting Geological InfOrma-
ton Oh the Subject From Il
Competent Authority.
A Romantic Story of Il White
WOman's Attachment for
Sitting Bull
Prof. Uphan on Dakota Wells.

In a recent article in the American
Geoiogist for October, Professor Upham
gives long but extremely interesting
account of the immense artesan basin
that underlies this state and South Da-
kota. His notes were made principally
from personal observations in James
town, Devils Lake and the Red river
valley, which fertile plain is known as
the bed OF ancient lake Agassiz, The
depths of the wells in this valley vary
from 40 to about $50, and the
height the water rises above
the surface is seldom more
than 25 to 50 feet and often but a few
feet. There are hundreds of these wells
on the farms OF that part Of North Da-
kota, their diameter of pipe not exceed
ing two inches. The water is found in
gravel and sand layers. The layers are
sheets enclosed by impervious till de
posits OF clay, sand and gravel, not lam
mated, left by the action Of the glaciers.
These sheets OF water bearing rock ex
tend from Manitoba to Yankton and as
sured!y from the Rocky mountains into
Minnesota. They vary in depth and
thickness and in some places seem to
thin ont SO that the enclosing upper
layer OF till rests on that below. The
origin OF the water is, beyond doubt, from
the basil sand stone OF tho creretaceous
series, coming through the sand stone
from its Outcroppings on the hanks OF
the Rocky mountains and Black Hills,
and permeating upward into the
drift OF the Red river valley
from areas where this sandstone
is the underlying rock.
The james river basin contains the
deep artesian wells and there are prob.
ably over hundred in this valley, with
depths ranging from 800 to 1860 feet, ex.
cept in the southern part of South Da
kota, where many wells are only 600 to
100 feet deep and a few between 300 and
400 feet. The pressure ranges from 81
to IT'S pounds per square inch. Al
Yankton the pressure raises water 129
feet, and at Aberdeen, Huron and Red
field over 400 feet above the surface.
The different substances found in bor-
ing the Devils Lake artesian we'll were:
glacial drift, llll as on the surface, 25
feet; dark shale, nearly alike through its
whole thickness, 14O3 feet; gravel of
granite pebbles up to half an inch IN di
ameter and firmly cemented with nodular
pyrite, 3 feet; Dakota sandstone or rather
q bed OF loose sand, very fine, white or
light gray. tho base of which was not
reached, 80 feet. The jamestown we'll
S5 miles south Of Devils Lake went
thr ugh the same distance of shale be-
fore entering the sand and gravel stra-
tum. At Devils Lake the flow of water
from the sandstone is found at exactly
the Sea level, but the top of the deposit
is 39 feet higher. At jamestown the
flow comes from depth of 76 feet below
sea level. Between these points the sea
level is probably nearly constant, and at
intervening towns as New Rockford and
Darlington there will doubtless be found
arteslan water at or slightly below sea
level. Further south the water bearing
sand is found at plane $50 to $50 feet
above the sea. and in some points
TO as high as 81S feet above.
In Nebraska, Missouri and
western Iowa the sandstone out crops,
giving rise to numerous springs; the same
is probably true in Minnesota and ac-
counts for the large number of lakes
that dot that state.
This artesian water can be had over a
large extent of semi-arld lands in the
Dakotas. Its value for irrigation. the
professor Is inclined to doubt. He says:
Will it be practicable to store the
water in reservoirs for use in the season
of growing crops, and especially dur
ing severe droughts like that which
cut of, the crops North and South
Dakota last year? TO this inquiry we
may reply by computing the amount Of
water needed for irrigatng gwen space,
as quarter-section of 16O acres, the
usual area of homestead. Allowing a
depth Of twelve inches of water for this
use during the growing season, the years
supply cf water from we'll flowing 100
gallons per minute is required, without
allowance being made for leakage or
evaporation from the the reservoir. The
DEVILS Lake we'll would, therefore, irri-
gate only 81 acres, and the jamestown
we'll, flowing 375 gallons per minute will
water less than a section one mile square.
But zach of these wells cost about $1,000,
to which must be added the cost of the
construction Of reservoirs and irrigating
bitches, placing the expense of such
water supply far beyond it's prospective
value for ordinary agriculture.
An important objection, however,
against the use Of this water for irriga-
tion seems to lie in it's dissolved alkaline
and saline matter, which must be left IN
the soil After continued use in irriga-
tion during many years, the residuum
from this water would quite certainly