Free Republic

As well as examining the official battlefield and the alternative site at Caldbec Hill, Time Team also considered the much-publicised theory that the battle took place in Crowhurst. Presenter Tony Robinson travelled to the village to meet local historian Nick Austin, who first made the claims in his 2011 book, The Secrets of the Norman Invasion. Nick told Tony that his evidence is based on written material from the period, typography and archeological evidence. And he added that dowsing had revealed traces of a Turkish-style crossbow on the site - leading him to believe that Turks played their part in...

I'm curious, has anyone else seen someone use a stick to find water before, and do you believe it works? We sold a piece of property and had to move a well that was on it to another older well we drilled years ago but never used. When we couldn't find the cap with a metal detector the well driller who put it in 20 years ago said we were looking in the wrong place, because there was no water there. He went back to his truck, pulled out a stick, and he and his assistant started walking the property...

ST. HELENA, Calif. (AP) — 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...

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.

“I’ve been considered nuts, speaking to two bits of wire and expecting an answer from them,” admitted local historian Walter Elliot as he published his new book on dowsing, called Divining Archaeology, “but I do get an answer from them! I’ve found so much stuff now, they cannae say I’m nuts.” The amateur archaeologist, who lives in Selkirk, has used divining rods to locate underground objects for more than 50 years, at first hunting for buried field drains and fence posts while working as a fencing contractor. “If you were unlucky enough to burst a drain while digging a fencepost,...

Using a couple of brass rods and a big helping of ingenuity, one tiny Texas town has managed to subvert a drought-related crisis and bring water to the people. The Llano River was dangerously close to drying up as Texas faces a punishing and record-breaking drought. Residents of this Hill Country town west of Austin depend on the river for their entire water supply. It neared zero flow this week, and the city was looking at trucking in water from 20 miles away, when city leaders employed the old-fashioned "witching" technique to strike water in the limestone bedrock near the...

Phil Stine is not crazy, or possessed, or even that special, he says. He has no idea how he does what he does. From most accounts, he does it very well. “Phil finds the water,” said Frank Assali, an almond farmer and convert. “No doubt about it.” Mr. Stine, you see, is a “water witch,” one of a small band of believers for whom the ancient art of dowsing is alive and well. Emphasis, of course, on well. Using nothing more than a Y-shaped willow stick, Mr. Stine has as his primary function determining where farmers should drill to slake...

Did I hear correctly that Sheriff Ed Brown in North Carolina used a divining rod to find the body of Maria Lauterbach (the missing Marine) in the backyard of the suspect? Is this what he said in answer to a question at the latest press conference? Did anyone else hear this?

On the hunt for grave sites By TRACY MOSS © 2004 THE NEWS-GAZETTE Published Online July 12, 2004 CLICK TO SEE PHOTO CATLIN – Stan Pentecost doesn't believe in ghosts, or UFOs, because he's the kind of guy who needs to see something to believe it. So, when he read that dowsing – using two rods to find underground water – could also be used to locate graves as well as determine the size and gender of the deceased, he had to try it. "I still can't explain it, but it works," said Pentecost, a member of the Illiana Genealogical...

Bill Martin doesn't look like your typical witch. He's a fourth-generation well digger, a ball cap-wearing, churchgoing 72-year-old who's still active in the family firm. V.W.H. Campbell Jr./Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Bill Martin uses a dowsing stick to check grave sites in the cemetery at Denmark Manor United Church of Christ. For 40 years, he's found unmarked graves, unmapped gas and power lines, and forgotten mines using only a forked twig or a couple of metal rods. But he's a practical man, and he uses all the tools available to him -- including one natural and ancient water-finding method some say reaches...

Happy Halloween! Please tell us any scary, creepy, spooky encounters you have had with paranormal phenomena. Let's see which freeper has the freakiest story to tell on this Halloween night.