The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1896-05-02
Brule County's Artesian Wells
ri,e Greatest III tie World.

|
The artosian wells of Brule county are the
greatest within a given district in the world
greatest in size OF bore, greatest in pressure and
grcatest in volume of water. They are the
wonder of even this wonderful Wost and are at
| tracing SO much attention all over the country
| that n brief description OF them seems appropos
| at this time.
| In curly the days of llimbali au adequate water
| supply for the town was n ser,ous problem
| Chanberlaia-;,. the west end of the county
constructed n system OF watci.works BY erecting
pumping plant tho bank of the Missouri
anu forcing the water to Il reservoir upon the
| bluffs above the town. As Il last resort Kimball
| decided to try for an artesan we'll. This was
ten year ago. At that time there vera outside
| OF 2anktrn county less than half dozen arto-
1 sian wells iii the state. and situated Kimball
ls, upon the highest point between the Missouri
| and the jim river grave doubts were expressed
of ever st.lkiIg ilow. But the we'll was a sue
cess, water mains and fire hydrants were put in
and Il complete system of watcr-works cen
structed at cost of less than S6,c00 The ex-
| pense of operating the system during these ten
years has been practically nothing and the re-
pairs on the well have cot exceeded 500. In the
course ofa few years Chamberlain abandoned
artesian we'll, and which hus ever since fur
nished the town with an abundant supply of
| pure water.
| From these initial efforts sp.aag a desire for
greater water supply all over the county other
than that from the ordinary farm we'll With
an abundance OF the most nutritious grasses
| ktown. II climate unsurpassed, all it lacked was
running streams to make it an ideal stock
| county and where the business could be engaged
| III on an extensive scale. Under tie operations
OF state law the county began the construction
oi township arteeiaE clstle township pay
| ing onefourtli the cost, tho county one-tenth
and individual holdings the remainder, by
special assessment in proportion to benefit re-
celyed, IN 1--WE annual payments. Twenty Of
these wells have already been constructed, and
their magnitude will be moro readily under
| stood when i: is stated that nearly everyone OF
| them is capable of fCrcing water through fifteen
| Mules of bitches, the bitches being about the
| size of ordinary meadow brooks. Tho county
nov has over 500 miles OF running streams, IN
addition to the Missouri on the border. No
comfy in Iowa aud Illinois is SO well Supplied
with running water. Tic water from the wells
is of high temperature varying fIom 20 to s.
degrees aud as pure as spring water, without it's
chilling effect. Iu addition to the running
streams, large lakes arc frequent the one in
| kimbsll covering % acres and affordins boating
| and fishing in the summer. skating in the winter
and from which is gathered nn abundance OF
| the pprest ice
| Snrlng the past two years irrigation expert
mcnts on n small scale have been made by indi-
vidual farmers tapping the streams from the
township wells and with such wonderful success
that private wells are now gong down all over
L \. I
nearly paid for themselves with one crop. By
the time the planting season arrives in 1896 it is
safe to estimate that the county will have forty
aTteslaa wells all told, sending out millions of
gallons of water every twenty-four hours. Four
extensive irrigation plarts will have been con-
structed-one las already been completed-cost-
ing from 5000 to $4,000 each, in addition to
other private plants on a smaller scale. Over
10000 acres will be irrigated in 1896 from these
private wells, and all of the wells except ono OF
two are six and eight inches in diameter and
flow from 80 to 60 barrels minute.
1t is q peculiar feature that in no other part of
the state or in the world for that matter--are
artcsan wells found of such uniform pressure
and volume as IN Brnle county. Wells which
throw Il solid six or eight inch stream three fee,
above the opening of the pipe are common. The
countyn4pears to be located over the very heart
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- ,a.n - ~" tto'' 80 VA. .a
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Till. go,
, ,aa.tas;a ,o,,, .. p., !.
dnr,h rro,, o,o 20 J, 900 s.o, ~, a. Wy :.
loss .h,n oi,, f,,t ,ii So
Tho cn,nty ,d i, r.,
in !, foo, ,I,nost at ,,t,at Jnnfb /, ao, ,,;n ),
? str,ck Tho ,vaIls r,n,,e n cost ,ron, q n,n :,
n :, ono ,,on,n1;,,, ,,o,, go - $50 ,r,a a,s
si,ouo, depending upon size OF bore. Inc cos