Water Divining? Chuck Van Drunen

Water Divining?

The art of finding water with your body

In New Mexico drilling a well is pretty much the only option for a consistent, reliable water source if you aren’t connected to a municipal or government water system. So if you’re planning to live in the country, and in my case, the Zuni mountains in particular, drilling a well needs to happen.

But well drilling is quite a crapshoot in the arid, mysterious under-terrain of New Mexico. Within a mile of my building site there are multiple wells drilled with huge variances in depth and flow. For example one nearby well was sunk to 400 feet and delivered over 30 gallons/minute of flow, while an equally nearby well was drilled to 700 feet and delivered only 1 gallon/minute.

My original thought was that’s just the luck of the draw, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and you simply drill your well in relation and location to your homesite. But when I called Jesse Elliott of Pie Town, NM to inquire about drilling a well his first question to me was “Did you find the water yet?”

I didn’t understand the question, and my confused answer in the negative led Jesse to explain a bit more. He said that you need someone to come out and find where the water flows under the land, as that can make a huge difference in well cost (depth), and performance (gallons/min). Still confused I asked about the equipment needed to do such an analysis. Jesse laughed, “All I need is my two metal rods and a bit of time to walk your land, and we will see if you go any water under there.”

Through the course of our conversation I slowly began to understand that Jesse was talking about “water divining”, a pseudo-science of a person having an ability to locate underground water sources simply by holding metal rods or sticks.

I was a bit skeptical of the process but my natural curiosity was stronger and I invited Jesse to come to my land so I could review the process in person.

In the meantime I did a bit of research about water divining and there seems to be lots of opinions on the actual efficacy the process. Historically it seems that divining the location of water dates back many millennia. In the Tassili Caves of northern Africa, an 8,000-yearold cave painting depicts a man holding a forked stick, apparently using it to search for water. In fact, historical images that appear to represent water divining appear all over the world—in the temples of Egyptian pharaohs, in ancient Chinese etchings and more.

The only scientific study of significance I could find was conducted by the German government around 1990. In the 10-year study period, researchers paired up experienced geologists and water diviners sending them to dry regions like Sri Lanka, Kenya, and Yemen. Scientists were surprised to find that many of the water diviners were spot-on. In Sri Lanka alone, drill teams drilled 691 wells under the supervision of water diviners and found water 96% of the time, as opposed to just over 50% without them.

When Jesse rolled up to my land in his diesel Dodge Ram dually pickup he casually grabed two metal rods out of the bed. They are maybe a quarter inch thick in diameter and 3 feet in length with a 5in or so 90 degree bend in them as handles. Talking for a bit I got the feel that Jesse is a down to earth, country type of guy, he carries a nonchalant pleasant demeanor, but also a no BS type of rugged ranch practicality.

Jesses looks around and explains to me that almost all water channels, at least in the New Mexico area, run nearly perfectly East/West or North/South. And after getting our bearings on the land’s boundaries we head across the land to the south, Jesse walks slow and deliberate and after about 150 yards both rods in Jesse’s hand turn inward almost 90 degrees with an eerie magnetic movement.

“Yep there’s a water channel here he says….it’s narrow though,” Jesse says while I watch him walk over the same area multiple times, each time the rods cross smoothly inwardly the same way.

I was perplexed. I also wanted to know what “narrow” meant. Jesse said that sometimes the crack or channel that water flows underground is so narrow that it can be inches wide. He recalled one time drilling a well and hitting a channel so small that when he looked down with a mirror, it looked like a hose was running from the side of the bore only an inch or two wide.

We continued our walk and after no other channels were found, we switced directions and went East to West. In the middle of the acreage the rods once again magically crossed. “This one’s narrow too…but pretty good. Now what we’ll do if follow this channel to where it intersects with the other North/South one,” Jesse says.

And that’s exactly what we do. It took a little bit but we finally pinpoint exactly where the two channels cross. Jesse smiles, “This is where you should drill. There’s two water channels crossing here and I feel pretty good about it…go grab a marking stake out of my truck.”

I do so and we mark the drill spot.

Still curious as how all this works I ask Jesse what he actually has to do to make this water divining work? “Not much really, it does help to think about water and almost visualize what you are looking for…you can actually find other things underground like telephone wires, sewer lines and other things. It works for that too,” Jesse says

I didn’t find his answer particularly sufficient,so I simply asked if I could use his metal rods for myself. He didn’t hesitate and I took the rods in my own hands, as he told me to grip them tight and keep my thumbs wrapped around my other fingers. I held the rods straight out and walked towards the known channel. When I approached a quite strong force, way stronger than I anticipated, turned both rods inwards despite the good grip I had.

And it sorta freaked me out.

Jesse was watching, “See! You can do it too. That’s great. Some people can, some people can’t. Just the way it is. Sometimes if someone can’t do it , I can put my hands on them and if I’m touching them…they can do it too.”

But Jesse wasn’t touching me, and I repeated the walking and crossing of the rods multiple times and they only crossed at the channels we found. This was certainly a mix of emotions of both confusion and pride, but my undeniable personal experience said something was making these rods move and it wasn’t me.

I thanked Jesse before he headed off back to Pie Town, and was subsequently converted as a a new believer in the art of water divining. Of course my full conversion won’t be complete until I see the actual results when we drill the well in the upcoming months!

Many thanks to Jesse and Elliott Brothers Drilling for this intriguing experience.

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