Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-11-05
A PECULIAR PHENOMENON.
Wells in Des Moines Wet District Dried
Up by Strange Explosions.

Des Moines. Nov. 5.-"Did your well
go dry last night?" or did you have
any explosions or earthquakes at your
house last evening"" is coming to be
recognized as the proper form of get
ting on between residents Of the portion
of the city north from Jefferson street
and west from West Ninth to Twenty
nowadays and not infrequently the an
swer is in the affirmative.
Despite the extremely wet season
North Des Moines wells to the number
of quite few have seemed to reverse
the laws of nature and instead of being
brim full have gone dry. And the pc
culiar part of it is that where house
holder would go to bed at night with
well that threatened to overflow into his
garden. he would awaken to find that it
had gone dry in the night.
Still others have been mystified by
hearing ominous rumblings coming up
from the ground in them and to feel
their houses shake as tho some one had
unceremoniously dropped a sack of
-four on the floor. The peculiar rumbling
sounds are the more noticeable from
the cellars under the houses and many
householder bent on firing the furnace
has had occasion to pause and wonder
whether he was victim of the rum
bling sound described in the lads" of
the cure-all catarrh doctors or was
standing over miniature Pelee.
Not few of the residents of the dis
trict were disposed to be alarmed at
rI r6ar ntsac
continued without serious consequences
the residents became reconciled to the
disturbances, but not to the shutting off
of their water supply.
Some of the residents commenced to
make inquiries. At first they were dis
posed to consult scientists for an ex-
PLANTATION of the phenomena, but one of
their number happened to talk to an old
time coal miner about 1t. The coal
miner seemed to be interested and after
getting the full details of the supposed
manifestations of nature he said that he
believed he could explain them. He said
| that it was his experience that where
coal is mined from the ground under
wells that the wells invariably go dry.
The driving of entries produces a lower
and easier channel into which the water
| finds its way. while oftentimes the FIR
| ing of shots cracks the strata interven-
ing between the coal measures and the
wells and lets the water out thru the
well bottoms. He said that the firing of
shots also produced a rumbling sound
| on the surface and that 1t is especially
noticeable in cellars Immediately over
| the mine rooms or in wells. He ven
tured the opinion that the noises came
| from these sources and that investiga-
| ton would show that coal Is being
| mined from under the lots or in very
close proximity to them.
Residents of that portion of the city
have commenced to look up the title to
their properties with a view of ascer-
| tanning whether or not the mineral
rights were not conveyed before they
came into possession of them. If the
rights were not conveyed 1T Is likely
that they will seek to secure an investi-
CATION of some kind to determine if
their suspicious that some one of the
several coal companies working in the
north part of the city has accidentally
driven entries beyond the bounds of
| their mineral rights are well founded.