“Otherwise there is no way that dowsing for water is any better than simply pointing to the ground anywhere, and drilling”
I’ve run a public water supply for 30 years, and I have seen this done by two people. And it wasn’t for digging wells,, it was for finding lost water lines. I couldn’t find the lines, as my detector only does ferrous metals, and the lost lines were copper. One guy was 82, the other was 22. The old guy used willow branches, and had been in the well-drilling business for over 50 years. The young guy was a carpenter, and was just able to do it. He said his Dad and Grandfather could do it too. I think it might just be a “man thing.” Whenever a man over 40 visits my water plant, with all the water stored, and running through pipes, they always excuse themselves to go behind the shed and pee! Maybe it’s because we all have a sensitive short “pipe?”
Well, I too ran into a guy a very long time ago in New Mexico that could find metal stuff underground. He used a string with a little ball of something tied to the end of it to find gold and other metals. I asked him what the little ball was, and he told me, 'Its a talisman made from an elk horn.' So I asked him how it worked and he told me it made the string vibrate just a tad when it went over metal.
I never saw him get very wealthy though - but I did meet another guy there that used a dry sluice with the great result of collecting a huge safe full of gold dust and nuggets over the years.