Well Witching

[Strut10]

Observing something gives your opinion alot more merit than not observing something.

Yep. But science is not a concensus of opinion (except in the case of global warming). Science is the concensus of knowledge of a systematic capability to reproduce a predictable result.

There have been scientifically researched studies of dowsing. None showed any more than a statistical wash between the water found by a dowser and a randomly picked location.

[bfletch7441]

Statistical analysis aside, I'm looking forward to seeing what Uncle Kenneth says tonight. Maybe I'll post results in a new thread and start a whole new fight about the strata we'll encounter and depth to water. Should be fun to read!

Ben

[elkoholic]

Water dowsing, as the guy that "dowsed" our well preferred to call it, is an interesting subject. Although tests to verify dowsing ability have, for the most part, shown dowsers to be no more accurate than chance, there are many, real life, successful dowsing stories. Ours is one of them. The man who dowsed our well predicted we would hit a weak water flow at 30 feet and would hit a better flow at approximately 380 feet. He also predicted the well to provide around 15 gpm. He was accurate on all of those predictions. Although there are places where no matter where you drill there is water, in my neck of the woods it just is not so, with many wells being over 800 feet deep and many a dry hole. The local well drillers do not hesitate to call in a water dowser. As stated by others in this post, seeing is believing.

[Muff]

I have no idea what the science is behind it, although I certainly believe there is some. It's definitely not magic. Like I said, I've watched an individual, actually he was a plumber, walk across someone's yard using the rods method and with no guidance from the owner, plans, drawings or any other resource, locate the buried water or sewer line with 100% accuracy. I've personally witnessed it maybe 20 to 30 times and he never missed a single time. In fact, he was never off more than a couple of inches.

I have also seen the Rod method work to find graves.

[LifeNRA]

[bfletch7441]

I called the Oklahoma Water Resources Board last Friday and they clued me in on what other wells in the area were. Most of them were 250-300 feet deep with only about 10 gpm at the best. The two closest were about half a mile away, and one of them was dry.

Then that afternoon Uncle Kenneth and his stick came out, and marked a spot. He said it should be about 50 feet to water and it's a good stream.

OK, sounds like he doesn't know what he's talking about until dad chimes in. When mom and dad bought the place 35 years ago, there were 3-4 old houses on it, and apparently they had a well, and it's only about 10 feet from where Uncle Kenneth marked his spot. Dad was the only one that knew about it, and didn't ever mention it to anyone (he didn't want us kids to find out about it, uncover it, and fall in). After burning down the houses he drug a big rock over the top of the well and all but forgot about it. He said it was about 12-18 inches around and remembers looking down it and seeing water. If you've ever looked down a hole, you know you can't see very far, so water couldn't have been very deep.

We pulled the rock away after Uncle Kenneth left, and it looks like the old well had collapsed. The dirt below the rock however was for the most part mud. And with the summer we're having, dry and HOT, that only means one thing, there's water somewhere close ... maybe!

Dad's calling a driller to see if they'll dril a test hole for him. I'm intrigued to say the least. The saga continues ...

Edited August 23, 2010 by bfletch7441