Hand dug well question

[Kansas Rust Buzzard]

They are all long dry but when I was a kid, there was still a few hand dug wells in my area, usually there was dirt and clay for the first 50 or 60 ft and then sand, often sugar sand for the next 150 ft to water. I got to see one old hand dug well that was 200ft that they droped a modern casing in to back fill with gravel pack and the original curbing was all redwood in about a 4ft square as we had no stone here. My question is, how did they dig them, did they slip the wood casing down as they dug to keep the sand from collapsing? There was 20ft of water in it so they dug below the static level, I am just trying to figure out how they did all that in 1885? I suppose you could get pretty creative when you were that thirsty?

[Wayne]

I have the same questions. My area is mainly cisterns. I saw a picture once that showed a tripod and pulley over the hole with a with a mule hooked to the rope to pull the bucket up with the debris. There was probably a young man that would dig you a well for a price.

[windybob]

I saw a video once that explained how they did that. Don't remember all of it, but they shored up the walls as they went down, then curbed it on the way up. Around here they used bricks or stone, even though we don't have stone.

[steve p]

We have a hand dug well here. Windmill sets over it. Full of water. It's 35 feet deep and lined with brick. I guess it about 3 ft in diameter. There are some videos on YouTube on digging shallow wells.
A 200 ft hand dug well .... Wow, that's deep. Can't imagine the diggers could stay down there too long. Run out of good air to breath. Maybe they had a way of circulating air down to them. I guess you do what you have to do when you need water.

[Wayne]

I think somewhere in Kansas is the deepest hand dug well. Terry we need your help. The cisterns around here are about 9ft in diameter then come up like the top of a bottle. They are all curbed with brick. There was a brick Co. in Corsicana during that time. So they all have Corsicana brick. When you see them your first thought is its a well. Reading the ladies diary from 1856 she writes about a period when water was so scarce they couldn't do there wash. No rain so there cisterns dried up.

[Terry]

You are thinking about the Big Well at Greensburg KS,
32 ft in diameter and 108 ft deep.
They started digging in 1887.
It was the city's water supply until 1932.
Here is a link to the Big well museum.
http://www.bigwell.org/history

[Wayne]

Thanks Terry! I still have this question how did they curb a well below water level?

[windybob]

Or...What do they set the curbing on? Dirt? Concrete? Nothing? You know that has to weigh a lot.

[Kansas Rust Buzzard]

On the Subject of the Big Well in Greensburg, most people don't know it but there was actually three of them just about alike. After the company did the one in Greensburg, they moved West to the bustling town of Santa Fe in now Haskell Co where the Dodge City, Montezuma and Trinidad Railroad was pushing West. They dug an identical one there although the Railroad never made it. The Feedlot that is now on that location dozed it in back in the 70s. The third one is at Selkirk, now little more than an elevator West of Leoti, at one time the Santa Fe planned a large round house, engine and car facility there one what they envisioned a main line but plans changed and the main shifted leaving it a branch line. That well is still there, it is stone lined just like Greensburg and has an iron grate over it at ground level so you can stand on the edge and look down. Nothing else is left of the rail facility, just an elevator but locals have moved the Shallow Water Depot in beside it in recent years hoping to make a museum but it has never blossomed yet. I still am not sure how they did those?