Artesian Well

[Abby Brown] Extra! Extra! Read all about it. In 1886, the paper boys had a huge story to share with their readers. When Belle Plaine, Iowa, drilled a well for water, it caused a gusher that flooded the entire town for a whole year.

(Map marking Benton County in east-central Iowa.)

Water is essential for life. Humans need it. Crops need it. Animals need it. So back when Iowa towns were first developing, city planners knew that digging wells to access groundwater was an important step in securing a town's future. In 1886, Belle Plaine, Iowa, had already successfully drilled wells that brought water to businesses and homes, but they needed one more for firefighters to use. When the contractor drilled for the new well and found water the initial hole was too small. Only two inches, so the plan was to let the running water erode the hole away to three inches. That's when something extraordinary happened. Water eventually began exploding out of the hole, reaching as high as five feet. The pressure of the water quickly made the two inch hole more like three feet. The bigger opening soon stopped the water from shooting as high, but it was still flowing out so strongly that no one could figure out how to stop it. Within the first two weeks, somewhere between 30,000 to 50,000 gallons were shooting out of the well per minute. By comparison, a fire hydrant's water flow is anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 gallons per minute. So nicknaming the well Jumbo was totally accurate.

For over a year, no one could figure out a way to stop the water from flowing. This situation fascinated news reporters and brought tourists in to see Jumbo spit up not only huge amounts of water, but sand, stones and even petrified wood. The town adapted as much as they could by channeling the water down ditches. But in general, they were baffled and asked for help from engineers in big cities like Chicago. Still for 14 months, the well continued to gush water.

Why do you think this particular well was so tough to tame? It's because it was a flowing artesian well, which means the water underground was confined and pressurized by layers of hard material like rock and clay.

Water table wells are unconfined. They tap into an aquifer, or groundwater, just below the surface. Artesian wells drill through a hard layer, usually rock or clay, to access an aquifer. The water there is confined and pressurized by the hard layers, so it only has one place to go through the drilled hole.

Eventually, a local resident figured out how to stop the flow of water. Into the well he put a combination of hundreds of feet of different sized pipe, 40 carloads of stone, 130 barrels of cement, loads of sand and clay… and it worked.

The artesian wells around Belle Plaine still exist, but they’re controlled. Jumbo, however, remains an underground legend with a street level marker to keep the story alive.

Every county in Iowa is overflowing with historic stories. Next time you turn on your faucet, perhaps the tale of an uncontrollable well in Benton County will trickle or gush into your mind.

Funding for FIND Iowa has been provided by The Coons Foundation, Pella and the Gilchrist Foundation.