The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1896-12-11
A QUEER, WESTERN OASIS.
How the sArtesian Wells Are Supplied
that Water It.

How the S.Artesian Wells Are Supplied,
that Water It.
h Artesian wells are usually expensive
lluXuries, but there is one spot on the
American continent where they are
| cheaper than pumps and more common
THAN mortgages. This is in the center
of what used to be called the Great
American fdesert. The boundary of the
oasis forms an ellipse. one focus is ut
A winding stream, called appropriately
Crooked creek, forms the long axis of the
ellipse. This little lozenge-shaped dis
| trict, lying in the arid forehead of the
West, is probably the hest-watereds por-
! ton of the e,rth's land surface. =
/ \ farmer here may have an artesian
we'll ins his backyard, another ut his
| barn and dozen more in different places
OH his farm. All he has to do, is to
bore Il hole Is or 20 feet deep and stand
to one side. The water quickly comes
hubblings up and runs husily away to
apench the thirstSo Crooked creek. No
MeltEs in abe whole district costs above
$50. shutsall are 81 tisfactory. ~
There are upward of $50 wells in the
| narrow basin. vet only few Of them
are intelligently managed. There are
gallons of water 4 minute. from twelve
to twenty that yield thirty gallons, and
the rest grade on down 70 eight Or ten
gallons. 1t is computed that enough
water flows from the ground each Fear
to cover $1,000 acres of land one foot
deep. = ID
| lied and have never. heard of the sQues
| ton. How can | use what I" have -
| Therefore. they waste the water shame
| fully, aud the district. instead Of being
! a garden of perennial beauty and pros
| perity, is chiefly remarkable for the size
| of it's mosquitoes and the hoarseness Of
! it's frogs. Here and there Il more
| progressive farlner has drained his auag-
! mires and shown what he 5can dO8 with
| these blessings of nature.
| From the time when students first
! turned attention to it. this spot has been
| Il puzzle. The people who live there
! imagine they have only thin crust of
| earth between their feet and a vast
| UNDERGROUND lake, that the land rests
upon this lake as ice does. upon water
| and that & we'll bored upon its bosom al
! lows the water to rise just as it comes
| up through cracks in the Ice. But tecI
behring's have proved that the lake does
not exist.
The state geological survey has about
| settled the question, and. after all, it is
a very simple one. The floor of all the
| Western territory is made up of deposits
OF 'CLa( age calleu ny SeOloSlStS the GRE
| tacecus. Above this, however. is Who'll.
| ly different formation, the tertiary depos,
! it, 1t consists of a loose material:: shale
| clay. sand. soil. varying in depth from sc
| to $50 feet This: forms the surface OF
| the land and is spread over the area even.
| ~ without respect to the under forma
tons. 1t appears to haze been put on
| like a suit of clothes to- warm the bones
| of naked old nature. =
The water. fallen as rain all over the
| Rocky mountain slope. sinks through this
loose crust until it comes TO the EcFeta.
ceous rocks. Then, finding its downward
course stopped, it follows the dip Of the
strata and flows gently eastward upon its
| cretaceous bed beneath it's tertiary GOV
| erlet. Wherever a stream has cut its
channel down nearly to the floor, enor
nous springs are continually to be found
! and this in the dryest region, not an actu
al desert, on the globe.
| The artesian district, then, is easily ac
| counted for. By some combination of cir
| cumstances the earth's surface has beer
| worn away i'll the narrow valley OF
| Crooked creek almost to the floor of the
| country, and the water flowing slowl,
along under the highlands of the Yves
| energies here for a brief peep at thu
| day and then passes on beneath thu
| Eastern hills.-Lawrence, Has. dispatch
| to New York Tribune