By Butch Bridges
Lone Grove, Oklahoma
Online August 2008
Updated July 9, 2017
Ever since Jill and I moved south of Lone Grove February 2, 2008 I have wanted a water well on our property. I wanted another source of water besides our SOWC meter. Harold Newman lives about 4 miles on southwest of us and is in the water well drilling business, so I contacted him in March 2008 about drilling a well.
On Friday July 25, 2008 I gave Harold the go-ahead to drill. He had already been out and witched (dowsed) for water, but unbeknownst to Harold I had already witched my property for water and placed a rock where I thought the spot to drill. When Harold came out a couple days later and witched for water, he came to the spot where he thought the best place to drill. I told Harold to look down. “See that rock at your feet?” Yes, he replied. I placed that rock there 2 days ago when I used my 2 brass welding rods to witch the property. We both had witched for water, and both of us determined the same spot, just about 100 feet SE of our house! Wow!
That Friday morning at 7am Harold called me and said his young hired hand helper could not make it to work and asked if I could help him. I said sure, come on! Harold said he’d drop the price from $18 a foot to $15 a foot (a $540 savings to me) if I would help.
At 80 feet Harold hit the first sand/water zone, but told me that is not the one we need, and that I would not be happy with this spot. So he continued on down and hit the 2nd sand and water zone at 120 feet. Harold said this is what he was looking for, so he drilled on down to 185 ft to insure a good well, and a good well we now have too! The water level stays at around 40 to 45 feet below the surface. That gives me about 140 feet of water standing in the 6 inch PVC pipe, plenty of water, cold, clear water. Harold said the well was producing about 15 gallons a minute, so we should never pump it dry and hopefully be a good well for years to come. One of the last things Harold did when finished drilling was pour several feet Pea Gravel down the well pipe. There is only one place in Oklahoma you can get pea gravel, that’s in Asher, Oklahoma.
Update 7/09/17: The water well had quit pumping water and I thought the worst, a dead water pump 180 feet down. After some checking, I found a shorted and burned spot on the electrical wire that feeds the 220 volts to the pump. I cut it out, spliced the it back together, turned on the pump, and water started coming out again! I turned the faucet on full, and in 30 seconds a 5 gallon bucket was filled to the brim.
The link below is a picture of my repair job.
https://www.oklahomahistory.net/ttphotos17a/WaterWellFix070717.jpg
