Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-05-31
ANTELOPE HOLDS
NO DEEP WATERS
GOVERNMENT FAILS TO FIND
INDICATIONS
GRAVELS ARE TOO THIN FOR
ARTESlAN ACCUMULATION
Ground Water Is Only Apparent Sup
ply, and No Great Quantity Can Be
Developed, Say Engineers
of Survey

In response to special requests as to
artesian possibilities in township
north. range west; township north
range 8 west: township north, range
west and township north, range
west of the Antelope valley region OF
California, the following statement has
been prepared by the United States
geological survey before the publica-
ton of the full report:
Direct evidence of the existence OF
artesian conditions has not been found,
since no deep wells have, so far as
known, been sunk in this vicinity. The
distribution of the buttes in the region
with reference to possible artesian
sources, namely, the streams debouch-
ing into the gravels upon the north
ern margin of the San Gabriel range, Is
of much Importance in determining the
existence of areas in which flowing wa
ter may he expected to occur. The ma
ture of the reconnaissance precluded
a careful mapping and examination of
these buttes, and definite statements
cannot therefore be made, further than
that little or no water need be expected
in a we'll sunk directly into bedrock,
unless by mere chance open fractures
carrying water be encountered in the
well. The graVels lying around the
base of or between adjacent groups of
buttes appear to be too thin to permit
the accumulation of artesian waters.
Moody Spring Is Ground Water
Moody spring, which rises in section
10, township north, range s west, and
flows northWestWard for a short dis
lance, appears to be merely ground
waters which have had the course of
their slow percolation through the grav-
els and sands interrupted by a buried
hoe ct-g m !, ,.i1o
which acts as a submerged dam, and so
brings the water to the surface along
its southeast side. Some water might
be developed by wells in the fiat east
of the spring, but probably not in great
quantity. The water of Moody spring.
used for stock purposes and by the few
travellers in the region, though fairly
palatable, contains a quantity of dis
solved mineral matter.
Lovejoy springs rise in section 16,
township 6 north, range west, and
flow northward for several hundred feet
a narrow gorge among the sur
rounding buttes. These waters are I'M
doubtedly a part of the underfow of
Rock creek, which sinks into the porous
gravels of its several distributaries in
the sloping plain Immediately south of
the buttes. The gorge in which the
springs occur is an old channel of one
of these distributaries, and becomes,
therefore, the natural course for it's I'M
derflow, which is brought gradually
nearer and nearer the ground surface,
until it energies upon the exposed bed
rock at the locality named.
The gravels and sands of the gently
northward sloping region in township
north range west, and township
north, range 8 west, between these
buttes and the mouth of Rock Creek
canyon, eight miles to the south, may
prove to hold enough surface water for
economic purposes. Such waters should
be of better quality than that of Love-
joy springs, which is not of great pur-
ity. Water is said to stand at $50 feet
from the surface in a well in the north
east quarter of section 2S, township 6
north, range 10 west