The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1911-02-24
rWO NON-AlETALLIFEROUs RE.
sOURCEs OF SOUTH DAKOTA

any Ellwood G. Perisho, State Geo
logtst, at Dry Farming Congress.
Pierre. s. d.
After his Introductory remarks.
Dean Perisho spoke in part. a. fol-
lows:
1t our last Conservation Congress.
Aeld In this city less than a year ago.
q was my good fortune to have the
@onor to address the Congress upon
The necessity of the conservation Of
the water of our artesian basin. 1
Aave been requested to briefly refer,
aoday, to Few phases of this topic.
tried to explain to you the area of
dhe state "nere we mlght expect to
Orocure flowing wells. The eastern
tine of this basin passes through the
counties OF Marshall, Day, Clark,
Kingsbury, Miner, Hanson, Hutchin-
oUn and Clay, while the western area
does not go a great distance beyond
the Missouri River, except in the val
toys of the rivers flowing down from
che west. In number of wells put
aown on the plains west of the Mis-
oOuri the water rises to an elevation
OF 1900 or 1000 feet above the sea.
H1is would make it possible, all
ehings being favorable, for flowing
wells to be obtained in the valleys OF
che Cheyenne, Bad and White Riv-
ars for distance of many miles west
Of the Missouri. In the valleys of
che Grand and Moreau the possible
~ of flowing wells would be less to
Che west than in the rivers farther to
che south. However near Belle
Fourche there are many good wells.
as to the source of this water, it is
well known that it comes from the
Dakota sandstone which lies approx
amately a thousand feet below the
eurface of the larger portion of the
above described surface. However,
the original source of all this flow
Gom our artesian wells comes from
che surface where this Dakota
sandstone outcrops around the Black
Mills and on the foothills of the
Rocky Mountains. When we remem-
Ger that generation ago there was
aot an artesian well in all our state
and then note the great number that
we have today, marvellous indeed is
ahe change. 1t was in 1920 that
che first flowing well was accidentally
produced in the Missouri bottom in
che southern part of the state. These
>ahirty years have seen wonderful
growth in number and vast differ
once in kind of our wells. The first
enes, even those in the northern
ral portion of our artesian area were
all made with big Pennsylvania oil
ahurn drills, four to eight inches in
diameter, costing several thousands
Of dollars when completed. Now
through the introduction of pipe
drilling process, introduced by Mr..
Norbeck, a member of this Congress
and our present Legislature, and of
ohe firm of Norbeck & Nicholson of
Redf1eld, q great revolution in the
making of wells was brought about.
This device, as you know, is drill
ting process by pipe, through which
a stream of water under great n.y.
&raulic pressure is forced to the bot
eom of the hole, and cleaning out
ahe hole. Instead of our farmers hav-
ing to put down we'll four to eight
inches in diameter, they are now
using one to three inch wells which
oost not more than one-tenth of the
expense of one of the larger wells.
90 it is no wonder, considering the
great advantage it is to men living
10th in the town and country to have
q continuous flowing we'll of pure
water at their home, and this at a
email expense, that the number of
ertesian wells in South Dakota has
recently increased from few hun
cred to several thousand. However,
It becomes the duty of Congress
dke this to note that there has been
. very great decrease in both flow
end pressure of these wells in the last
decade. If you will consult the data
Of ten or fifteen years ago you will
Nnd that it was not at all uncommon
60 have a we'll producing a thousand
90 two thousand gallons of water per
minute and flowing with pressure
Of more than a hundred pounds to
che square inch. Today not only
obese same wells, but similar ones
gut down at a nearby point will not
furnish either one-half the flow or
one-half the pressure. In fact, so
great has been the decline of the
PRESSURE and flow that in number
Of places more than fifty per cent of
ahe recent wells have ceased to flow