Old Public Water Well

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of the Old Public Water Well out in Erath County. Around 1887, a crew building the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railroad dug this well. They needed water, the work needed water, and so down they went.

What they hit first was something almost miraculous out on the Texas range. An artesian well. Water that came up on its own, pushing from below like the earth itself was offering a drink.

An early day oasis, the marker calls it, and you can picture why. Travelers coming through, cattle herds moving across the land, all of them finding relief right here. Then came the complication, and there's always a complication.

Another well was dug nearby to supply the locomotives, and that was the end of the artesian pressure. The power was lost. The water stopped rising on its own.

What had been a self-giving spring became just a well, deep and reliable but no longer magical in that particular way. Still, it held on. Local residents who by then had their own private wells kept this one in their back pocket, so to speak, for emergencies.

It was still there when you needed it. In 1965 the Bluff Dale Study and Garden Club restored it, and the marker noting all of this was placed in 1971. A well dug by railroad builders, first artesian, then ordinary, and still standing by when things go wrong.

Some things earn their place just by lasting.

What the marker says

An early day oasis for travelers and cattle herds. Dug about 1887 by crew building Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railroad. At first artesian, lost power when well was dug nearby to supply locomotives. Local residents, who now have private wells, still use this well in emergencies. (1971) Incising on base of marker: Restored 1965 by Bluff Dale Study and Garden Club