Lynn uses willow because its plentiful, but hes also used chokecherry branches. His son & daughter can both find tile & waterlines as well. This generation may be losing this old art unless some of you take up "water witching." Bill Brandon, an oldtimer touching his seventies, who lived in the Decatur area, but is now deceased . I have told them that there doesnt seem to be water on their acreage they wish to have well on. Ive tried irrigation but cant tell. The most popular dowsing tool, however, is the dowsing rod. I can't tell the depth though. Accuracy? In other areas, underground water sources are few and far betweenjust streams, some large, some smallcoursing through the layers of rocks. However, according to Jim Rickords of Sonoma County, a fresh willow branch is the best tool to use due to it's natural "thirst" for water. Yes, I can witch water. Dowsing, in general terms, is the art of finding hidden things. She has used witching sticks with very good results. I've also had success finding graves. Even willows cut in the winter work fine. ****. "The small end, where you are holding it, is less than 1/4 inch in diameter," he says. Riana Mondavi explains the mysterious art of water witching, a craft her father Marc Mondavi uses to locate water for vineyards for The Divining Rod wines. Just had a new well drilled today. When one has witnessed someone with a proven track record do it right in front of you with spectacular results then one tends to lean toward KNOWING it works, at least for certain gifted individuals. More for local enjoyment. Has anybody heard of the Mansfield automatic water finder? He counted about 160 bobs. I cant be that far from you. I was a golf course irrigation foreman for many years and whenever we couldnt find a system or branch of the main line, I would think pull out 2 metal pieces of wire and locate the missing irrigation line before the other guys even got their high tech (expensive) locators out of the box and powered on. Sure enough, the second stream really has good flow. Found many underground veins with it. Mar 22, 2015 #4. He got out of the car, held a Y-shaped willow branch in his hands, walked in an expanding circle around the yard and, "At one point the end of the dowsing rod dipped toward the ground as though . Farmers have used water-witching for generations, to determine the best place to dig their wells, and to find a source of drinking water for their cattle in a pasture. I was a strong farm boy, and I held that stick tight. A lot of people think that water divining is confined to rural areas, but that isn't true. Using a green willow branch Babs Ballard looks for the flow of water near a well she previously discovered on Swauk Prairie Wednesday . First, Lynn locates water using welding rods to determine if there is any water in a certain area. Some regions have underground aquifers. They have learned through this experience the parts of their service area where wells with adequate amounts of quality water are usually encountered. Cant afford to drill that far again. I know it works I use it nearly everyday. Might be something to that theory. It is 65 feet deep, just at bedrock. I can't find a water vein underground, but I can find underground wires and pipes. Drilling a water well can cost thousands of dollars. If its a small willow and you are holding it really tight, it can actually take the bark off the willow where you are gripping it, he says. A forked branch, or iron rod is a common tool that is used in water witching, also known as dowsing. Allow to steep overnight, strain the next day. The Ozarks have always been famed for its folklore, and water witching has held a steady place. I am John Benscoter, my phone# is 570/833/4250, my address is 345 Beech Grove Road, Laceyville, Pa. 18623, my email is johnrbenscoter@yahoo.com. Well driller use divining willow branch to locate the spot to drill for water during the long drought in Western USA. Id concentrate more on finding water or whatever youre hunting. I use a steel wire as my tool. However I will admit. Its very strange looking. Warning be careful if you try that with opposite sex. I find lost Septic Tanks and Septic Drain Fields, Leaking Pond Dams, Spring Water for Cattle watering Systems and wet Spring produced wet areas in Lawns and Cropfields. He had a standing challenge offering a million dollar cash prize to anyone who pass his tests on any of the above. Thats underground. David, my wifes uncle witched for water at the place where we build our first house soon after we where married. The village maintenance crew (3 of them) were all downers. At first when I started I would just walk around in an area and if my stick went down Id say try here. All anyone has to do to find their own answer is to contact their local water welldriller and ask them if dowsing for underground water really works. Water. my wife and i had a water witch find water for us to put a well in at our northern pa cabin,he was spot on and the depth also spot on. I have drilled 2 dry wells now and would like to hire a dowser but I cant find anyone in the area by word of mouth or internet search. Since then, I have used it multiple times to find old water lines with good results. Water witching saved me days of work with shovel. He said he wished he would have quizzed this guy more to learn as this witcher has been gone for some time already. A well we had dug was close to two underground streams at different depths. It worked every time. The problem is, the water line running to our hydrant goes right under our working chute. might have some false positives! They just KNOW it works. He would then hang the pliers from his finger and they would spin around and tell him the depth of the water. Worked every time. The heavy end points toward the ground, held about a foot off the ground, and it starts bobbing up and down. It took a while to learn how to hold them loosely while balancing them. The willow never moved but when he walked behind me with his hands around mine the branch would bend down no matter how tight I held it. As a young teen,my neighbor friend showed me how to do it with a forked apple branch.I was a doubter.We would hide a cup of water behind or under objects in his house.Then we would do a contest on who could find the water.One particular couch we could hide it beneath on ends or middle.I was astounded and we trained ourselves and we were nearly I would say 95 % accurate.Once we had an issue with the branch dragging the tip down in the middle of the living room floor.WTF was wrong? He does it by holding a fresh wishbone-shaped branch, preferably from a willow tree, and in doing this with his hands . Almanac Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved. I can get you in touch with dowsers. Looks like a lot of potential millionaires amongst us *****I think he has passed on now but there was a guy named James Randy, who used to appear on the Johnny Carson Show. Septic. In 1970, we decided to put in a deeper well. One of the oldest methods for "finding" (or claiming to find) groundwater is called dowsing or water witching. Although most would say that dowsing is nothing more than a myth, there are quite a few people today whobelieve in this practice. He said, it's your money, what do you want to do? A single rod spinning in a circle is usually a great spot, but Im not sure what it means. . I personally use a dowser to decide where to put plants. The well driller can keep going, and you can tell him roughly how deep it might be. Not sure how to determine the quality of the water and its flow rate but apparently some people can determine that too. He does this every day he works and with 100% accuracy. The term "witching" - an exclusively American term - signifies this spooky, mysterious, occult aspect. Then if the driller hits one and only gets 2 or 3 gallons per minute (not enough to service a home), he can continue drilling until he hits the second vein. He said it was the dangest thing he's ever seen. I'm not sure about electrical but probably so. Cut the smaller tubing to 30-inch lengths. 3) have kids walk with rod in each hand over hose/cord starting about 6 feet back from it. Just another thing in a long list of things I have no talent for. So the roots branch out in all directions seeking water and will grow more dense in areas where water has been found. He said when you first felt the willow stick move you counted from there to when it went straight down. Some people use hazel wood, but it doesnt grow where we live. I'm not sure where he was originally from, but he'd lived here for probably at least 50 years. "Willow branches," he says. Ever wonder why there needs to be a pump at the bottom of a deep well. It is not easy for adults to do, apparently, because they tense up. It works! He carried a 1" pipe about 4-5' long. I had a small tractor with a backhoe on it at the time. When trying to find one of the house skeptics. The wires did move/ cross. This is widely known.. I never pushed it in more than twice to hit clay tile. Decades ago some of my Dad's friends called BS on his abilities to witch. Sometimes, the towns are really far away so you're out for eight hours and you make $200 . I am looking for a dowser in Middle TN. My email is djcwhite@comcast.net I would GREATLY appreciate any help in locating one around here. If the side to side is weak then not enough water. This is all you need. I had a well driller witch a location and put a rock about as big as my fist at the location in the grassland area, he said get a second opinion from mr Powell, I called him, he came, I told him I wanted a well somewhere in that 2 acre area, he stumbled around as he was about 90 years old, using about 8 ft of a grape vine in a horseshoe shape, he said you see that rock, your best water is about 1 ft from that rock and 3 tiers of water, the well proved to have 3 levels of water per the driller. The more times it bobs up and down, the deeper the water.. Has to be a forked limb from a willow or fruit tree. One example: I located a well for one person on top of a hill, Lynn says. Im about half of them the wire will start going down on them when they approach the vein. If you are very very good at locating existing field tile, I will gladly hire you. He would bend ends of the welding rods down at a 90 degree angle. If theyd stopped at the first level, it would not be a viable well. If you have ever been to underground caverns theres places where water swirled and made these huge pools, I always picture in my mind thats whats going on and that might make sense why its a good spot. He kept on looking and found another one that was perpendicular to the first. About like going by the almanac to know when to lay down gravel..But a couple of years ago, we were building a new pipe fence in an area with a suspected water line. And I dont charge because I cant guarantee 100%. He had a neighbor come down and check it and he found the same spot and said there would be water at about 30-40 feet and plenty of it. I've an uncle that can do it. Said Id try. In Europe and northeastern US, it is known as dowsing. I used to live on the eastern side of WA state, and when I was 13ish my mother bought some property near my grandparents. George Casely uses a hazel branch to find water on his farm, 1942. If it starts again count the number of bobs. For me. In fact, historical images that appear to represent dowsing appear all over the worldin the temples of Egyptian pharaohs, in ancient Chinese etchings and more. Why does the weeping willow root system expand so widely? When hes asked to locate a well, Lynn tries to find a spot where two underground streams cross, at different depths, he says. that was 30 years ago and still pumping good water . I can do it but only with bare brazing rods for whatever reason. 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