Deep Drill #1
1914: The Valle Mining Company decides to prospect for ore using a steam
powered diamond drill. At first, the day proved nothing...
Over and over, the decision came down.
"We'll go deeper!" 100, 200 400, 800 feet deep they drilled, still nothing.
Then came that sound. At 840 feet they struck an underground artesian river,
not just a well, but a river and water came gushing out at 75 gallons per minute,
enough to fill a modern day drywall bucket every 4 seconds.
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It took 50 years for science and the Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources to progress
to where the source of the water could be traced, traced from an underground river in
Arkansas, 200 miles away. That river feeds this well from deep within the aquafer. The Artesian
Well flows today and people drive hundreds of miles, even from Illinois, to fill their water jugs.
The oldest man in the town attributes his old age to the water, drinking it every day.
90+ years later, even during the worst drought, the well continues to produce.
With hundreds of nearby wells now, the volume has diminished but the purity and rare flavor endures to this day.
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