Posted on 03/03/2014 11:27:28 AM PST by nickcarraway
With California in the grips of drought, farmers throughout the state are using a mysterious and some say foolhardy tool for locating underground water: dowsers, or water witches.
Practitioners of dowsing use rudimentary tools - usually copper sticks or wooden "divining rods" that resemble large wishbones - and what they describe as a natural energy to find water or minerals hidden deep underground.
While both state and federal water scientists disapprove of dowsing, California "witchers" are busy as farmers seek to drill more groundwater wells due to the state's record drought that persists despite recent rain.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcbayarea.com ...
A monkey throwing darts at a survey map will be as accurate as a dowser.
The results were not what was anticipated from the geology of the area.
I won't discount the possibility that there may be some out there who are effective.
Hopefully, no one is spending enough money to attract the outright charlatans and con artists.
That’s just baaaad juju. I remember some old testament Jewish Kings who turned to false God’s and reaped heavy punishment.
I hedge my bets on food prices are going up. Way up.
It’s all fun and games until someone gets turned into a newt. Even if he does get better.
They have a better change with witching and dowsing than getting ANY WATER from the O admin. The thugocracy wants Americans to starve. It will help encourage more class war fare
Basically, groundwater is everywhere down below. Any spot identified by a dowser is no better than any other spot in the surrounding area.
I saw an old man witch-up a well for a nursery in Fayetteville Arkansas back in the early 70s. He had a forked twig and walked all over a field and then marked a spot and said the water would be about 40 feet down. The next week they drilled and at a little less than 40 feet they hit water. Went by there a few years ago and it’s an apartment complex now.
I’ll send my girlfriend out there. Oh wait. She’s just a witch, no water.
Which one...Pelosi or Boxer?
A lack of water can do that to the human mind.
In my own memory, I can recall at least four times he directed them to dig in a specific area, and they found water.
My grandfather was a well witcher. For those that are just spouting off...ignorance is bliss. Geologists would come and get grandpa when they couldn’t find water. Gramps would find it and tell them how deep they would have to drill. He could also map the tile in a field. We just had a well drilled. The guy witched it and said that two veins came together at a certain spot. He hit it right on. Depth also.
My grandfather on mom’s side was requested a lot and he had a good track record finding water. He was also a very devout old school Christian church goer.
In this region, groundwater may well be everywhere down below, but a distance of 50 or 100 ft. can make the difference between clear, cool, and drinkable water, or some nasty, iron rich low flow stuff. When you are drilling into old river channels for your water source, you hit it right or get lousy results.
In some areas the stratigraphy may be as simple as you say, but in much of the country it is not.
The guy I saw just had a couple of pieces of bent welding rod. He wasn’t mumbling any spells.
I had a roommate in college (Univ. of Nebraska) whose dad was a dowser in west Nebraska. Problem is Nebraska sits atop the largest fresh water aquifer in the world.
I remember telling him that the trick would be finding spot without water!!!
http://www.randi.org/library/dowsing/
I saw a dowser hit the sweet spot in a dry landscape once.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.