Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1906-10-13
ARTESIAN WELLS
AND UNDERTOOK YIELD UNLIN-
TIED SUPPLY OF PUREST
WATER.
Found Everywhere in Fertile South
western Kansas, Along the
Santa Fe.
THE FARMERS RAISE BIG CROPS.

explorations of the subterranean water
store of the Arkansas valley, the
Atchison. Topeka & Santa Fe Rail-
way company has found much evil
dence of its widespread abundance.
The underfiow is limited by the "di-
vides" north and south, which confine
the valley, and is available for irriga-
ton, or domestic use wherever a
rancher drives a well and puts up
windmill. The artesian flow, which is
much deeper, is not thus confined. 1t
likewise is tapped wherever a drill
hole is put down, although it does not
always come to the surface of its own
force, and is found throughout the
southwest regardless of valley con-
fines. The deeper store is found in
the Dakota sandstone, and the under
flow is above in the sands of the val
ley.
The deeper flow possesses artesian
force in spots, and sometimes is
pumped, but it is never failing in
quantity, and it only is a question of
time, capital and population when
drills will penetrate it in thousand
places. At Richfield, in Morton coun-
ty, 81 miles south of Coolidge, where
there are two artesian wells, which
How 40 gallons or more a minute each,
artesian water was struck at a depth
of 500 feet in 1887. These wells, cased
with four-inch pipe. forced water Is
feet above the surface, and until 1899
flowed copiously, when they collapsed
and, the population having left the
country, were abandoned.
At Johnson, in Stanton county, mid
way between Coolidge and Richfield,
the same water is found at a depth
OF 500 feet. This, however, does not
flow, but is pumped freely and is the
best water in that section. The I'M
derfow lies in the sands above it and
is tapped at about 100 feet below the
grass roots, but it is not so wholesome
for stock or household. However, it
answers the purpose of irrigation, and,
being nearer the surface, is more gen.
orally used.
In Meade county, 125 miles or more
east of Richfeld, the Santa Fee has
found flowing wells at depth of about
$50 feet. 1t is the same water that is
found in Morton county, the differ
ence of depth being accounted for by
the lower altitude. These wells are
not on the line of the Santa Fe, but
in its explorations, as at johnson and
at Richfield, the company's prospect
ors are not confined wholly to the
Santa Fee lines, but look for water in
all the country tributary. Abundant
water is found a few miles east in
Clark county and further east along
the Englewood branch of the Santa
Fe, which lately has received much
new immigration from Illinois, Iowa
and other states of the middle west,
but it is not artesian.
The only flowing wells so far found
in the Englewood section are in Meade
county, but it is the same deposit
everywhere along that line. J. w.
Robson, of the state board of rail-
road commissioners, who made a
wagon trip through that section re-
Gently, says the Santa Fe has tapped
this water frequently, proving it's gen.
eral and widespread abundance. He
says an added evidence of this abun-
dance is the luxuriant growth of al
falfa, which he declares is the finest
he has ever seen.
But it is the underfow that the
Santa Fe prospectors more often tap
and from which agriculture derives
the best results at present. Later
more general developments of the
artesian water will irrigate the
upland and add to the supply in
the flats along the Arkansas river,
but the underfiow is what the ranch
ers look to for the present 1t is
the underflow that has made
alfalfa, kafir and sorghum pos
sible in the valley, and lately its value
has been made MANIFOLD greater by
the sugar beet experiments of the
Santa Fee. For it was these expert
ments that led to the mammoth beet
sugar factory now in course of con-
struction at Garden City. This plant.
built of iron and brick, will cost $780,
600 before it turns a wheel and 1t
will he ready for operation October 10.
The Santa Fe has traced this under
flow all the way from the headwaters
of the Arkansas to the Kansas state
line, where the stream passes into
Oklahoma, and that it is widespread.
from one divide" to the other, is
proved by many evidences For in
stance, wells some miles from the
river rise when the river rises and fall
when it falls. Twenty miles north of
Garden City is one of these wells. and
125 miles east, Is miles south of Kins-
ley, is another. These are not isolated
instances. but examples of many.
These wells, shallow in the fats, are
deeper in the hilly country. Some
times they are $50 feet deep, but such
instances are rare.
Stranger than the rise and the fall
of the wells with the tides of the river
is indubitable evidence that the Ar
kansas river is the source of one of