BLUE EARTH COUNTY. 453 



Fountains. ] 



one hundred in number, have been obtained by boring to slight depths, from 

 25 to 75 feet, in the till, upon the area drained by the head-streams of Maple 

 river, from Sterling Center fifteen miles southeastward, including Sterling 

 and Mapleton townships in Blue Earth county, and reaching into Faribault 

 county. It may be that this artesian water is continuous a half dozen 

 miles still farther southeast to Wells, where the most remarkable flowing 

 wells, or fountains, in Minnesota have been found. Though the water at 

 Wells is obtained 110 to 120 feet below the surface, it is yet at a greater 

 hight above the sea than in the shallower fountains on the Maple river. 



These fountains are mostly bored in the valley of this stream, forty feet below the general 

 level of the adjoiuing country, or in the similar valleys of its tributaiies, which are depressed 

 fifteen to forty feet. Near the Maple river they are commonly about thirty feet deep, being pipe 

 from a half inch to one and a half inches in diameter, and the water rises from them five to ten 

 feet above the surface. The sand and gravel which yield this water are not encountered every- 

 where upon this area, so that many borings in favorable situations get no artesian flow. It also 

 seems likely that some localities have more than one stratum from which water may rise above 

 the surface. For example, three fountains bored by AVilliam Randall in the southwest part of 

 section 14, Sterling, in the valley of a small creek tributary to the Maple river which flows through 

 t'.ie north part of this section, are 30, 50. and 60 feet deep, in their order as one follows down the 

 creek. From the first to the third is about a third of a mile, in which distance the creek probably 

 falls fifteen feet, making the difference in hight of the water-bearing sand at these points forty- 

 five feet; suggesting, as the surface of the drift-sheet upon this region is nearly level, that these 

 layers of sand, instead of being parts of any continuous stratum, may be distinct and independent 

 of each other. The section of the lowest fountain here, 60 feet deep, was soil, 2 feet; soft and 

 sticky blue till. 38 feet; sandy clay, thought to be free from gravel, 20 feet; with sand at the bot- 

 tom from which the water rose in one minute to the surface. 



The owners of the four mills on Maple river, and of the Red Jacket mill on the Le Sneur 

 river, having been often hindered by scarcity of water, offered to pay $60 from each mill, if a 

 hundred cubic feet of water per minute should be added to the Maple river by fountains. Well- 

 makers accordingly obtained the right to bore on two farms and six fountains were obtained on 

 each. One of the farms is now owned by E. W. Hicks, living close east of the northwest corner 

 of section 14, Sterling. The largest of the fountains bored here forms a stream two feet wide 

 and six inches deep. The other six fountains are on Mr. Cornell's farm, in the west edge of Ma- 

 pleton, three miles farther southeast. Together the twelve fountains yield 135 cubic feet of water 

 per minute; for which these mill-owners paid $325. This was done in 1877, and is regarded as a 

 good investment, for this additional flow is constant through the year and enables the mills to 

 work in the driest seasons. 



