The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-12-22
ITO be continued
A QUEER WESTERN OASIS.

How tho Artesian Wells Are Supplied
That Water It.
Artesian wells are usually expensive
luxuries, but there is one spot on the
American continent where they are
cheaper than dumps and more common
than mortgages. This is in 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 Wilburn, Kan, and the
other at Meade. A winding stream,
called appropriately Crooked Greek,
forms the long axis of the ellipse. This
little lozenge-shaped district, lying in
the arid forehead of the West, is prob
ably the best watered portion of the
earth's land surface.
A farmer here may have an artesian
well IN his back yard, another at bis
barn and a dozen more in different
places on his farm. All he has to do
is to bore a hole fifteen or twenty feet
deep and stand to one side. The
water quickly comes bubbling mp and
runs busily away to quench the thirst
of Crooked Creek. No well in the
whole district cost above $50, but all
are satisfactory.
There are upward of $50 wells in the
narrow basin, yet only few of them
are intelligently managed. There are
three or four wells which yield forty.
five gallons of water a minute, from
twelve to twenty that yield thirty gal.
Ions, and the rest grade on down to
eight,or ten gallons. It is computed
that enough water flows from the
ground each year to cover II, 900 acres
of land one foot deep.
The residents, however, are not
organized and have never heard Of the
question .tHow can I use what !
have?" Therefore, they waste the
water shamefully, and the district,
instead of being garden of perennial
beauty and prosperity, is chiefly re.
markable for the size of its mosquitoes
and the hoarseness of its frogs. Here
and there a more progressive farmer
has drained his quagmires and shown
what he can do with these blessings Of
nature. . .s T..
From the time when students first
turned their attention to it, this spot
has been a puzzle. The people who
live there imagine they have only
thin crust Of earth between their feet
and vast underground lake, that the
land rests upon this lake as ice does
upon water, and that well bored into
its 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 western territory is made up
of deposits of that age called by geolo.
gists the cretaceous. Above this,
however, is wholly different forms.
ton, the tertiary deposit. It consists
of loose material; shale, clay, sand,
soil, varying in depth from fifty to ESQ
feet. This forms the surface of the
land and is spread over the area evenly
withoutrespect to the under formation.
It appears to have been put on like
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
cretaceous rocks. Then, finding it's
downward course stopped, it follows
the dip of the strata and flows gently
eastward upon it's cretaceous bed
beneath it's tertiary coverlet. Where.
ever stream has cut its channel 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. o.,
The artesian district, then, is easily
accounted for. By some combination
of circumstances the earth's surface
has been worn away in the narrow
valley of Crooked Greek almost to the
floor of the country, and the waite,
flowing slowly along under the high.
lands of the West emerges here for
brief peep at the day and then passes
on beneath the eastern hills.