The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-10-03
ARTESIAN WELLS.
How Western kansas Is Made a
Fertile Territory.
The UnderfOw Yields an I'm
limited Water Supply.
IT MEANSLARGE CROPS
Santa Fe Road Largely RespOn-
sible for This Blessing.
Tracing the Flow From the
Mountains to State Line.
IT MEANSLARGE CROPS

Garden City, Kan, Oct. 3.-In its ex-
piorations of the subterranean water
store of the Arkansas valley, the Atch-
ison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway COM
pany has found much evidence Of its
widespread abundance. The under
flow is limited by the divides north
and south. which confne the valley
and is available for irrigation, or do
nestle use wherever a rancher drives
well and puts up a windmill. The
artesian flow, which is much deeper, is
not thus confined. 1t likewise is tap
ped 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 re-
gardless of valley confines. The deep
er store is found in the Dakota sand
stone, and the underfiow is above in
the sands of the valley.
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 a thousand
places. At Richf1eld. in Morton coun-
ty, 50 miles south of Coolidge, where
there are two artesian wells. which
flow 40 gallons or more a minute each
artesian water was struck at depth
of 600 feet in 1887. These wells, cased
with four-inch pipe, forced water
106C ABOVE the surface. ana until 1888
flowed copiousIy. when they collapsed
and, the population having left the
country. were abandoned.
AT johnson, in Stanton county. mid
way between Coolidge and Richfeld.
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 underflow
lies IN the sands above it and is tapped
at about 100 feet below the grass roots
hT4f If NOT wholesome for stock
or household. However. it answers
the purpose OF irrigation, and. being
nearer the surface, is more generally
used.
In Meade county. 125 miles or more
east of Richfeld, the Santa Fe has
found flowing wells at a. depth of about
$50 feet. tt 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 Richfeld, the com pany's prospect
ors are not confined wholly to the
Santa Fe lines, but look for water In
all the country tributary. Abundant.
water is found 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 1t 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 railroad
commissioners, who made wagon
trip through that section recently. says
the Santa Fe has tapped this water
frequently. proving its general and
Widespread abundance. He says an
added evidence of this abundance is
the luxuriant growth of alfalfa, which
he declares is the finest he has ever
seen.
But it is the under1ow 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 underf1ow is
what the ranchers look to Tor the pres
ent. It is the underfiow that has made
alfalfa, kaffir and sorghum possible in
the valley. and lately its value has
/ been made many-fold greater by the
sugar beet experiments of the Santa
Fe. For it was these experiments that
led to the mammoth beet sugar factory
now in course of construction at Gar
den City. This plant built of iron and
brick. will cost $T50.O00 before it turns
wheel, and it will be ready for op-
/ Grafton 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 Ok
/ Iahoma, 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 Car
| den City is one of these wells and
125 miles east, 10 miles south of Kins-
1 ley, is another. These are not is0la-
| ted instances. but examples of many.
These wells. shallow in the flats. 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