Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History/Artesian Wells

Artesian Wells.—The flowing or artesian well takes it name from Artois, France, where wells of this character have long been known. Hilgard says: "Artesian wells are most readily obtained where the geological formations possess a moderate inclination or dip, and are composed of strata of materials impervious to water (rock or clay). alternating with such as-like sand or gravel-allow it to pass more or less freely. The rain water falling where such strata approach to or reach the surface will in great part accumulate in the pervious strata, rendering them 'water bearing. Thus are formed sheets of water between two inclined, impervious walls of rock or clay, above as well as below, and exerting great pressure at their lower portions. Where water so circumstanced finds or forces for itself natural outlets, we shall have springs; when tapped artifically by means of a bore-hole, we have an artesian well, from whose mouth the water may overflow if its surface level be below that of pressure."

Prior to the settlement of Kansas by white people, and in fact for Kansas, or at least that portion of it, is situated over a subterranean body of water possessing all the qualifications mentioned by Hilgard for producing artesian wells.

With the knowledge that flowing wells could be obtained in western Kansas came a request for state aid in developing the field, and on Jan. 30, 1908, Gov. Hoch approved an act passed by the special session of the legislature, authorizing the county commissioners of Stevens, Morton, Grant and Stanton counties to appropriate from the general revenue funds of said counties not exceeding $5,000 in each county for the purpose of prospecting for and developing artesian wells. However, no money was to be so appropriated and expended until 160 acres of land had been donated to the county, and upon this 160 acres one or more wells might be sunk, such wells to be under the control of the county commissioners. No reports of wells sunk under the provisions of this act are obtainable.

Recent developments tend to show that the early experiments in artesian wells in Kansas were only comparatively successful or altogether failures because the drillers did not go deep enough. Most of the wells have gone no further than the first pervious stratum. Somewhere there is a source of pressure sufficiently strong to furnish an abundant supply of water if the stratum connected with it can be reached. In 1910 Ernest C. Wilson, formerly editor of the Richfield Monitor, in Morton county, developed an 8-inch well, over 500 feet in depth, which flows 2,000 gallons per minute and supplies enough water to irrigate a half section of land. If the same conditions hold good throughout the western part of the state, it is only a question of a few years until that section will be well supplied with moisture, the treeless plains will be sheltered by timber, and the "Great American Desert" will be a thing of the past.