Hand dug wells....

[smstonypoint]

I don't have a picture of the one at my Dad's place. It is 63' deep about 4'x5' rectangular. My grandpa dug it by hand when he was in his early 70's. It is dug through clay and dirt. He used to find the wells around the property using dowsing sticks. I remember helping haul up buckets of soil with an old pulley. He would have light bulbs on old cords to see by. We don't use if for drinking just watering the garden. It has never run dry yet.

Just curious. Do you have any recollection of how he handled the water that came in as he was digging?

Steve

 

[grnspot110]

Don't know about SC, but in MO there's a "proper" procedure to fill a well! Layers of sand, clay, etc., either that or "don't ask, don't tell"! ~~ grnspot110

 

[Renze]

My parents went to a couple they know, which are doing developmental help in Mozambique. The man works for a foundation that funds well digging for local tribes.
They dont haul in a big drill rig, but pay three local men a double wage to dig 10 to 15 yard into hard red soil, into rock bottom untill they hit water.
They stop digging only when the water forces them to. If the water doesnt flow in quick enough to stop them from throwing the bucket aside and taking on the pick and shovel, the well isnt deep enough. Then they line it with locally baked clay bricks, masoned with locally dug sand, only the cement, as well as the manual pump, are purchased. All other labor and materials involved, are sourced locally, so the maximum amount of funds are INVESTED INTO the local economy !!

The foundations objective is deeper than just plain old philantropy: They want to give the local economy a boost by purchasing goods and services from the locals with foreign capital, to build public provisions which raises the standard of living. Just throwing foreign capital into countries doesnt build their economy, it just destroys it. Building 3rd world economies takes time, and you have to start at the basis, just like they did in the Western world 200 years ago.

To help the locals remind that "grey bearded white man" doesnt stay forever, and that they should keep their focus on self support, not holding their hand up, the deal includes that the local villagers have to provide the three well diggers with food for the time they are in the village. The tricky part of developmental help, is that people may become totally depending on help, which makes it impossible to use the limited funds of the foundation to help other villages in the country too.
Digging such a well can take up to 8 weeks of digging. Hard hats are provided to the workers, but they refuse to use them because they cant bend over their shovel in a just over 2 feet wide well, and also wear a hard hat.
So far, nobody was injured by a pebble falling all the way down.

Because the couple is aged (the man was a construction site manager and went for a couple of years, AFTER his retirement) they came back to Holland last month.

 

[Treemonkey1000]

Smitty I don't remember how he managed that as I was pretty young and not supposed to be by the well.. But you know kids and curiosity. He may have just dug until the water started flowing. My Mom said that he dug and found many wells in the area. He also found coal veins when he did mining here in the area.. Tough old Greek he was.

 

[cr1ga]

Still using the water from this hand dug well.

 

[JB4310]

Still using the water from this hand dug well.

That looks like it's sleeved with sections of a large diameter pipe of some sort.

I've heard with those you just basically dig under them so they keep dropping down and stack another on top Don't know if it's true, sounds like doing it that way there's no cave in danger, still a danger of getting a pail of dirt on your head though.

I'm not claustrophobic, I like tunnels and caves and other sub terrainien spaces, but being down there would feel helpless, be a good acid test.

JB.

 

[dave1949]

I wouldn't be found dead or alive digging something like these. Just thinking about it gives me the willies. In desert areas, you can see/trace the path of the qanats coming down the mountain slopes.

WaterHistory.org

Dave.

 

[Storm56]

We have one on our property. It is covered in snow & ice now. It is so nice I cannot bring myself to fill it in. It even has a large flat stone with a perfect circle cut in it for the top. All hand laid stone and still has water in it, probably 30 feet deep. It is right next to an old stone foundation. Probably one of my ancestors dug it as I bought the property after it had been out of our family for about 70 years. I just keep a couple of big rocks over it so kids cannot get into it.

 

[retiredmgn]

nelson here,
Wells are something I can comment on. My birdhunting activties cause me to cover a lot of miles - my self appointed Indian name is 'I walk far'. One thing I always do after coming across an old foundation in the deep of no where is to look for the well. It never fails, homesteads built around what would appear prime grounds went dry. I have seen places where so much work had gone in but they become abandoned. I attribute this to the well going dry. A homstesd where the water goes dry fails - cant go on without water.
I have come accross house and barn foundations built up so well with granite blocks, some built with fieldstone just as straight and square as anyone would be proud of building today but the inhabitants had to leave. When I see this I can only attribute it to the well going dry. These places were built by competent people. I can't believe these kind of foundations were built by anyone who was thinking, ''This is just for awhile"
Me, I have a 200+ year old farmhouse. Water is a dug well up on a hill with gravity feed down to the house. Hasn't gone dry yet but if it did we would be screwed.

 

[kebo]

I knew the liability aspect would be brought up! This well is actually not far off a secondary road, but probably at least a mile from the nearest houses. It's now totally surrounded by planted pines so it's not in place where young children might happen upon it. Years ago it would have been possible to get a tractor to it, but not now, at least not without cutting some of the landowners precious pine trees down. The fact that it is surrounded by a concrete structure does make it somewhat harder for someone to accidentally fall into it. It's not like its a hole in the ground covered up by an old rotten piece of plywood itself covered with leaves & pinestraw.

I'll at least pose the question to the landowner to see what he wants to do about it. Technically my hunt club doesn't have any obligation to do anything about it as we just lease the hunting rights to the land. It will be up to the landowner to make it safe, as it is his liablity. I may be wrong but I don't think SC has a law requiring old wells to be covered or filled. Anybody know for sure?? Would that be the DHEC people??