The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-10-18
HELPS ARID LAND
Solving of Water Problem in
Southwest Kansas.
Cheerful Story Comes From an
Isolated Region.
CHICAGO MANS IDEA.
Ernest C. Wilson Writes of a
Big Artesian Well.
Flow Reaches $50 Gallons for
MANS IDEA.
Flow Reaches $50 Gallons for
Every Minute.

Garden City. Kan, Oct. 1s.-''The
desert shall rejoice and blossom as the
rose" a Biblical prophecy which is
soon to be realized by the scattered
settlers of Morton county, is the most
cheerful story that has come out of
that isolated region in the extreme
southwest corner of Kansas. Ernest
c. Wilson, formerly of Chicago, who, a
quarter of a century ago left family
and friends of the city for a life on
the parched plains, and who picked
upon Morton county as probably the
community tarthest removed from rail-
road and the civilizing influences which
follow it, has solved the problem of
water for the arid lands.
Mr.. Wilson has believed all the years
he has resided at the little village of
Richfield the county seat of Morton
county, that somewhere down in the
earth there is an abundant supply of
water for man and beast, as well as
for rich acres which only need it to
produce abundant crops. Wilson, with
others knew that the great floods of
water coming down the Arkansas river
from the Rocky Mountains annually,
and which appeared to sink into the
earth near the western Kansas line,
leaving the bed of the river a dry
sandbar. found an underground current
and spread out over the vast areas of
desert land. But it was not thought
that this underf1ow reached Is miles
to the south of the rivers main chan
mel; nor was it believed that the great
sheet of water underlying Morton coun-
ty was more than 500 feet below the
surface.
Story of a Big Strike.
The story of Mr.. wilson's big strike
comes in a letter to a friend here, and
it tells of an artesian well on the town
site of Richfeld which flows $50 gal
Ions of water per minute. The apparent
ly Iimitless underground lake was
reached at a depth of $50 feet It is
estimated by men who are capable of
judging that the supply of water from
this well will easily irrigate a quarter
section of land. A dozen or more wells
will be drilled at once. in and around
Richfeld, and the men who have lived
on hope in that desert region for the
past third of a century now believe that
a revolution is at hand, and that great
agricultural development will follow.
There is much interest in this, the ex-
IRENE southwest corner county of kan
sas. Thirty or more years ago it was
known as Kansas county, and its area
was larger than the entire state of
MasSa chuSettS. Thousands of settlers
hocked into that region to obtain gov
eminent homeSteads, and the legtsla-
ture found it necessary to organize.
about 20 new counties across the west
ern end of the state The bill, as 1t
was offered in the house, left the south
west corner as Kansas county, and
when it was under consideration in
committee of the whole, David Over
myer, a former leader of the Demo-
cratic party, who was member from
Topeka, and who had recently come to
the state from Indiana, arose and made
a speech that thrilled the assembly. He
eulogized the life and public services %
the great war governor of Indiana, and
declared that it would be a fitting
tribute to Governor Morton to name
a Kansas county for him. Overmyer
won his point, and Kansas county was
changed to Morton.