ARTESIAN WATER PREDICTIONS 



361 



ARTESIAN WATER PREDIC- 

 TIONS 



THE extensive investigations 

 of underground waters car- 

 ried on by the U. S. Geological 

 Survey have afforded a basis for 

 predicting artesian flows in sev- 

 eral areas, and some of the pre- 

 dictions have been verified in the 

 most gratifying manner. One 

 of the most notable of these is 

 a well at Edgemont, South Da- 

 kota, recently sunk by the Bur- 

 lington Railroad Company. This 

 company applied to the Survey 

 for information as to prospects, 

 and the matter was referred to 

 one of the Survey geologists, Mr 

 N. H. Darton, wdno had made a 

 detailed investigation of the re- 

 gion. He predicted that water 

 should be expected in the Dead- 

 wood sandstone about 3,000 feet 

 below the surface. 



Accordingly the boring was 

 begun, but, meeting with many 

 difficulties which caused great 

 delay and expense, there was at 

 times a disposition to abandon 

 the work. The engineers in 

 charge, having confidence in Mr 

 Darton's prediction, urged a con- 

 tinuance of the boring, and their 

 faith was finally rewarded by 

 striking a great flow of water at 

 a depth of 2,695 f^^t. The well 

 yields a half million gallons a 

 day of tepid water satisfactory 

 for locomotive and other uses, and, as 

 there is no good water within 60 miles 

 and much of the supply had to be hauled 

 in tank cars, the value of this flow is 

 inestimable. 



Several other notable illustrations of 

 artesian predictions are presented along 

 the extensions of the Chicago, Milwaukee 

 and Saint Paul Railroad and the Chicago 

 and Northwestern Railroad, wdiich have 

 recently been built across w-estern South 

 Dakota from the Missouri River to the 

 Black Hills. That country has but little 

 surface water and mostly of poor quality, 



This artesian well, at Edgemont, South Dakota, is a 

 practical illustration of the value of the scientific work 

 of the U. S. Geological Survey (see te.xt below). 



so that the problem of water supply was 

 of vast importance. A careful investiga- 

 tion was made of the water-bearing 

 strata which pass underground on the 

 slopes of the Black Hills and furnish the 

 supply for the flowing wells in eastern 

 South Dakota. From the data obtained 

 Mr Darton was able to determine not 

 only the depth to the water-bearing sand- 

 stone, but the maximum height of land 

 on which flows could be obtained. Eight 

 wells, from 1,395 to 2,135 feet deep, have 

 closely verified the predictions and fur- 

 nished the requisite supply of excellent 



