Can you do it? My dad could as well. He had a standing challenge offering a million dollar cash prize to anyone who pass his tests on any of the above. Lynn doesnt know how water dowsing works, but he says it does work. My Grandfarther was a well digger and I saw him use a forked stick from willow trees to find the best place to dig a well. My Gramma, who passed earlier this year, witched the well for her and Grampas house when it was built. I can do it but in her younger days mom was a lot more accurate than I. I can't make it work, but know many who do. I asked if I should go grab someone to witch for water and he laughed and said, I'm heading over there to dig next and pointed towards the road about 200 yds away. I was having a well dug before we built our house 4 years ago. 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. "Experts in the old days held a forked willow branch in both hands, and the single part of the stick would turn as they crossed over water. I seem to find them occasionally with the backhoe ?? Why does the weeping willow root system expand so widely? We then dug it up to tie in a new cattle waterer, and it was dead on. Usually look at blue prints to go onto the street and mark what is needed. In the Tassili Caves of northern Africa, an 8,000-year-old cave painting depicts a man holding a forked stick, apparently using it to search for water. Find an under ground vein. I don't know how accurate it is. But many have been 300 feet deep or more. One works fine. I did all of a sudden they went down. Whoops, I misspelled his name. In Sri Lanka alone, drill teams drilled 691 wells under the supervision of dowsers and found water 96% of the time. Source Collection. I use welding rods first, to see if theres water, and where, or several possible locations on the property, he says. It was a strong well and He was only off by 5 feet.darndest thing I ever saw. I found two more spots and rushed to tell him. Thats where Im going to drill I can`t do it myself, but have seen it done, and it does work. Friend said try witching the pipes. Traditionally, the most common dowsing rod is a forked (Y-shaped) branch from a tree or bush. Go mellow out and when you are at peace go try it again. Fortunately, no matter where you stand on the dowsing debate, this is one bit of ancient wisdom that you can easily put to the test! Water-witching for Wanderers (and Wonderers) invited the public to engage with Calgary's community of Quarry Park, the site of a former gravel pit, through dowsing. But, to each his own. They have learned through this experience the parts of their service area where wells with adequate amounts of quality water are usually encountered. How to Dowse for Water. Some types of rocks are known to be good producers of water, whereas others will not hold or yield useful water. I went in and grabbed the copper rods and just like mentioned above the rods would cross when I walked across the area where my husband then excavated and found the line. I think it has to do with magnetics.when I worked in an IBM machine room I hacd to wear an antimagnetic watch to keep time. Fill a jar half full with branches and pour boiling water over the branches to fill the jar. He said I laughed and counted after he dropped it into the bucket of water. It could be a tiny seep or huge underground stream. This process hasnt failed me yet. It's frustrating when you can find 5 tiles lines in a row exactly where the wires say they are and then you dig for two hours where the next was showed and there's nothing within 50 feet. Id concentrate more on finding water or whatever youre hunting. I can't tell the depth though. The more times it bobs up and down, the deeper the water.. I can walk across a field using the wire. If you'd like to try dowsing for yourself, it's really quite simple. A good amount of the time, city records are not updated to show where lines are. Known as a water witch, waterwitch or dowser, Dad has been able to sense and track underground water sources for as long as he (and I) can remember. Tractor. Hello Brian, Do you know how I would go about finding a Dowser in my area? He had a standing challenge offering a million dollar cash prize to anyone who pass his tests on any of the above. If theres more water on down, it will start over and seek the next one. I hollered. I have witched successfully for water lines with 2 coat hangers spot on every time. I already knew exactly where it was,but I still watched to see if he would locate it. . He witched and said there was an underground river but extremely deep. Ive never charged the locals. Itll start to bend down when youre getting near the spot, and if you back up, itll straighten back up. Thank you, Clarence Inman of Bonny Doon . Water dowsing, or water witching, runs in the family. An excellent article, Amber Kanuckel. My father was really good at finding water for people he used wires i prefer a forked stick dowsing doesnt have to be proven to me i know without a shadow of a doubt it works i havent figured out how to scientifically prove it but i can make anyone feel what i feel as long as im touching the stick you will feel it to there has to be a way you could measure the force being put on my stick its so strong if i try to hold the stick and keep walking the stick will break. NASA's Aqua satellite will provide crucial information about the water in the ground and the weather on the horizon. Said Id try. He had a small well that was surface water coming from a small dam but the output would decrease during times of drought, so he spent a lot of time and money drilling for a better, drinkable water source. I had a small tractor with a backhoe on it at the time. Ive tried irrigation but cant tell. Im not near as good as she was. "Dowsing," "water witching," "divining," and "doodlebugging" are all names for the practice of locating groundwater by walking the surface of a property while holding a forked stick, a pair of L-shaped rods, a pendulum, or another tool that responds when the person moves above a location that will yield an adequate flow of water to a drilled well (see Figure 1). I didnt know what I was doing and no one told me anything, I just held two bent coat hangers loosely as instructed by my father who was skeptical (and had heard the advice from a friend and thought it was a put-on), I walked across the yard and when I passed the pipe, they crossed. He called me a one-armed water Witcher. Find "Y" shaped branch. You may have to ask around to find out methods that work for you. That's the way he found an underground well passing through our background. While the majority of dowsers search for water, some practitioners use this technique to find all sorts of things: gold, bombs, or even the missing remote control to theTV. I saw my uncle searching for depth of a sream. But if its only a few gallons per minute and the client wants more, you know there is a deeper layer. I sit in a chair to steady myself while holding the large end about 6 inches from the ground. Make Some Miso Noodle Soup With A Soft Egg! Ever wonder why there needs to be a pump at the bottom of a deep well. At 20 to 30 feet from where the water comes to or near the grounds surface, by holding the wire (bent on a 90 degree angle) I get a magnetic attraction to the point of the start of the water vein. But on occasion there might be more.. They showed me how to do it with a willow branch when they were getting ready to drill a well. For me. 1. If a landowner wants a well drilled within a hundred or so feet of a building site, almost any location selected will have similar potential for yielding water to a well. They came in knowing the situation but all were unsuccessful. I used wire for finding the lost graves. So, the claim here is all the studies that show dowsing DOESNT work are somehow disproved by one study that implied it may (an implication that has other explanations, such as the ability to interpret the terrain). Need to check it out this spring and see how many witches we have in the family. Water witching saved me days of work with shovel. 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. Yes he dosed and found and also claimed underground rivers! It DOES work. Not a lot of call for it in the big city. It is not easy for adults to do, apparently, because they tense up. You need lots of experience to no how far below surface but simple training exercise makes believers out of doubters. Heather Smith Thomas. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, however in quantum physics we DO know that what we can sense with our 5 basic senses, can only perceive about 5% of reality, while the 95% is super-natural or beyond the 5 senses. Now, skeptics would argue that the reason for this is simple: No matter where you drill, as long as youre willing to drill deep enough, youre bound to find water eventually. The technique requires the dowser to hold in his hands a forked green willow branch (or a pair of bent brass rods, or any number of other permutations), then walk about, waiting for the device, also called a divining rod, to dip toward . I believe it has something to do with the body also. I'm not sure how to take your opinion on these abilities described above. You could turn on all spigots and run all night without running dry. His son & daughter can both find tile & waterlines as well. However, in this particular study, the dowsers were also asked to tell their drill teams at what depth theyd find the water and how much water they would find. For instance, trying to find an existing modern line when somebody else put in a clay tile in almost the same spot in 1910 and there's no record of it can be frustrating. Has anybody heard of the Mansfield automatic water finder? He said, it's your money, what do you want to do? . You didnt tell him that theres always charlatans that impersonate the real thing. I had coffee from the well my 100% Cherokee grandmother found in 1962. Falls apart under controlled testingbut some people are unfazed by that. When it works for them, its very convincing. Some real estate agents in our valley ask him to check properties before offering them for sale, to make sure there is water. The local Purdue farm uses dowsing rods to locate broken drain lines in the fields. Finding Bodies of Water. George's water well thread got me thinking about it..I too am planning to drill a well in the near future. It's a centuries-old practice. 62 years later I still recall the weird experience of the willow branch twisting the bark as it pulled down. If I were going to pay for a wellwhich today in our area costs about $90 per foot to drillId want someone to locate the water.. Our back yard was our an acre and our front was probably around a quarter. Water-Witchin' was at one time a part of regular country life when other means of finding water underground in order to dig a well wasn't available. The dowsing that most people are familiar with is water dowsing, or water witching or rhabdomancy, in which a person holds a Y-shaped branch (or two L-shaped wire rods) and walks around until they . That situation was interesting because the rancher had already hired a well driller who drilled 400 feet and didnt hit water. One old timer told me the force of the pull could be enough to rip the bark off the branch." . Drooping branchlets are typically green or brown. They can also cross rods in groundwater. They also provide information about the different types of rock units that exist in the area. Scientists were surprised to find that many of the dowsers were spot-on. my dad is gone now , but every now and then i cut a branch just to show how its done. I would appreciate that information. The forked ends of the dowsing rods are clutched palms-down, and dowser slowly walks over . Then the rods look like this: . Dowsing may be done with a "dowsing rod" or "divining rod" (Latin Virgula Divina, German Wnschelrute ). He was a local legend as a water witcher who succeeded in finding water when drillers failed. My buddy spent money hiring them and even worse, he spent money drilling dry hole after dry hole that would hit the shale. One had me hold his stick, fresh off the tree with bark on it, and had me try to locate areas to no avail. At first when I started I would just walk around in an area and if my stick went down Id say try here. When holding the willow branches, your arms are close to your body with elbows resting against your hips. Later I told a highly skeptic friend who insisted I show him. 1,200 feet below ground, lay a huge seam of the Judith River Sands formation. He always witched or dowsed before drilling. When they move, they arent attracted to one another. I know that not everyone can. Im about half of them the wire will start going down on them when they approach the vein. >Thanks Marc The well hit at 75 foot dept at 6 GPM. A multi million dollar grant to research it. He was right every time. #4. It works. My father in law, Lowell, was held in high esteem within our county as a master dowser. Theres just not that much luck to be found. I have located a few places to drill a well. And the hole was dry at 520 feet. And don't fall for the people using welding rods, they work for water lines but not aquifers. Its a simple tool nothing more than a forked branch cut from a live tree. Aug 26, 2007 Aug 26, 2007 Updated Jan 31, 2020; 0; Facebook; Twitter; . General logic is that youd find water more often in the valley floor than on a high mountain. They are attracted to his body and point back toward him. Of you use geology and science they will not guarantee anything either. First, Lynn locates water using welding rods to determine if there is any water in a certain area. Farmer wipes the sweat off his head after removing a cowboy hat. Know any in PA? After locating the underground water with a forked willow, he figured out how deep it was by using a willow stick about 3 feet long. If it pulls hard, you know theres a lot of water. I use two L-shaped wires bent out of coat hangers. I would not drill a well without the advice of a witcher. Because the same types of rocks are usually present beneath that small area. 3 of 8 4 of 8 Marc Mondavi, vice president of Charles Krug Winery and a water witch, holds his copper diving rods on Monday, Dec. 3, 2012 in St. Helena, Calif. Russell Yip/The Chronicle Show More . When the grateful rancher paid him, Lynn realized his services were valuable. Slide the larger copper tube over the short end and bend the remaining inch upward at 45 degrees to hold the handle in place. That well driller didnt believe in water dowsing originally but now calls me whenever someone wants him to drill a well.. Lots of info out there on his tests and such if you want to research. that was 30 years ago and still pumping good water . Not sure if I do agree as a Master Naturalist and geologist helper but Granpa did use Dowsing to dig a well in Jefferson County Illinois to supplement the family cisterns. I worked for the USDA-NRCS for over 28 years. Some underground streams pop out as springs near the tops of high mountains, possibly following the folds, layers and up-thrusts when the mountains were formed. Lynn likes to use a green willow, but even a relatively dry one will work . Enough with the energies and superstitions and but it worked for me anecdotes. Not a single budge in indicating water. Accuracy? We use this same technique to locate graves except we use brass rods. When he walks over a location that has the potential of yielding water, the dowsing rod will rotate in his hands and point toward the ground. 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