The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-12-06
A QUEER WESTERN OASIS.
How the Artesian Wells Arc Sup
piled That Water 1t.
From the New York Tribune.

pIleU Ihnt water 1t.
From the New York Tribune.
Artesian wells are usually expensive
luxuries, but there is one spot on tho
American continent where they are
cheaper than pumps and more common
than mortgages. This is the center Of
what used to be called the Great American
Desert. The boundary of the oasis forms
an ellipse, one focus of which is at Wal
burn, Kan, and the other at Meade A
winding stream, called appropriately
Crooked creek, forms the long axis of the
ellipse This little lozenger-shaped dis
trict, lying in the arid forehead of the
west is probably the best watered por-
ton of the earth's land surface
farmer here may have an artesian
well in his back yard, another at his barn
and a dozen more in different places on
his farm. All he has to do is to bore
hole fifteen or twenty feet deep and stand
to one side. The water quickly comes
bubbling up and runs busily away to
quench the thirst of Crooked creek. No
well in the whole district costs above $50
but all are satisfactory.
There are upwards of $50 wells in the
narrow basin, yet only a few of them are
intelligently managed. There are three or
four wells which yield forty-f1ve gallons
of water a minute, from twelve to twenty
that yield thirty gallons, and the rest
grade on, down to eight or ten gallons. 1t
is computed that enough water flows from
the ground each year to cover 1900 acres
of land one foot deep.
The residents. however are not organ
lied and have never heard of the aues-
ton, How can I use what 1 have?"
Therefore, they waste the water shame
fully, and the district, instead of being a
garden of perennial beauty and prosper
ity, is chiefly remarkable for the size 'of
its mosquitoes and the hoarseness of its
frogs Here and there a more progress
sive farmer has drained his quagmires
and shown what he can do with these
blessings of nature.
From the time when the students first
turned their attention to it this spot has
been puzzle. The people who live there
imagine they have only a thin crust of
earth between their feet and vast un-
derground lake, that the land rests upon
this lake as ice does upon water. and
that well bored into it's bosom allows the
water to rise just as it comes up through
cracks in the ice. But deep borings 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 west
ern territory is made up of deposits of
that age called by biologists cretaceous.
Above this, however, is wholly differ
ent formation-the tertiary deposit. IT
consists of a loose material; shale. CLAW
sand, soil, varying in depth from fifty to
250 feet. This forms the surface of the
land and is spread over the area evenly
without respect to the under formations
1t appears, to have 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 creta-
ceous rocks Then, finding it's downward
course stopped, it follows the dip of the
strata and flows gently eastward upon its
cretaceous bed beneath its tertiary cover
let. Whenever a stream has cut it's chan
mel down nearly to the floor, enormous
springs are continually to be found, and
this in the dryest region. not an actual
desert, on the globe.
The artesian district, then, is easily ac-
counted for. By some combination of cir
cumstances the earths surface has been
worn away in the narrow valley Of
Crooked creek almost to the floor of the
country, and the water flowing slowly
along under the highlands of the west
energies here for brief peep at the day
and then passes on beneath the eastern
hills.