The pioneer press. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 1893-190?, 1902-09-18
NATURES CLEAR GIFT.
Artesian System Of South Dakota a
Boon TO the Stock Grower and Hus.
bandnnan

Artesian System Of South Dakota a
Boon TO the Stock Grower and Hus-
bandmsn.
The artesian system. says State
Geologist G.. Z. Iodd. is one OF the
most valuable gifts of nature TO Dako-
! Ia. II has been developed most In the
James river valley, particularly in
/ Sanborn, Dawson, Hutchinson and
Yankton counties, where copious wells
have been obtained from a depth or
! 300 to 600 feet. Also, in counties bor-
| dering the Missouri as far up as
| Chamberlain, and again in the vicinity
I Of Pierre, and in the James river val
| ley in the counties of Beadle, Hand,
/ Hyde, Hughes, Potter, Faux, Sphinx
and Brown. In these latter regions,
! however, IL is necessary to go 500 to
! 700 feet, according to the altitude.
| In many cases a pressure of from
100 to lis pounds is obtained. which
when the flow is large, affords splen-
did power for Touring mills and feed
mills, while several cities on the
| James and Missouri rivers have wells
which furnish water for city use, fire
protection and power for electric light
plants. A flow of 5000 or 1000 gal
Ions a minute has been obtained from
| eight-inch wells.
Where the wells are shallow they
are of great value in dairying. They
supply a spring house for keeping
milk. abundant water for cattle, and
! by irrigating the pasture, abundant
! feed. Hence, some townships have as
many as thirty-five or forty wells.
The Dakota formation consists OF
three or four principal strata OF sand
stone, ten to fifty feet in thickness,
separated with greater thicknesses OF
! clay. These sandstone strata are sub
divided in some localities. Hence
! there are as many different water
bearing strata which may be struck
at any point. These "hows, as they
are called. differ much from one an
other in the quality Of water. Inc
upper ones are usually soft, soft as
| rain water" is the common express
sion; the lower ones are usually hard
and charged with an abundance or
| lime, magnesia and iron salts. II is
! common thing for farmers to have
two wells, one a pump well, soft, the
other a flowing we'll, hard. Sometimes
| both flow. and occasionally both hard
and soft are obtained from the same
well.
The pressure usually increases In
! the lower flows SO that power wells
are usually supplied from them.
One of the peculiarities OF the ar
tesian system is that it's pressure In
creases towards the west, so that al
| though II is not sufficient to produce
| flowing wells on the tableland be-
| tween the James and Minnesota
/ rivers, west of the James 1t furnishes
/ flows over all the surface except the
/ higher points, !. e., the summits o,
| the divides. On the other hand In the
Minnesota valley the surface Is so low
that there Is a belt OF flowing weiis
| crossing the center OF Grant county
| from this same formation. The pres.
sure height of the wells in the James
river valley is about 1000 feet above
the sea. Around the Black Hills 1t is
over 5000 feet
There are now flowing over 1900
wells, furnishing about 10000 gallons
a minute.
AS there are strong reasons for be.
| iieying these waters are being con
tinually supplied from the rainfall
upon the upturned edges OF the Da'
kota strata near the Rocky Noun
| tains, from the seepage OF such
streams as the Missouri, Yellowstone
| Big Horn, North Platte, ETC., where
they cross these strata. and as 1t Is
not unlikely that considerable stored
| supply may exist under Wyoming high
enough to afford flows in much OF the
James river valley, we may believe
that the supply IL wisely husbanded
L..
definite period Of years.