Read time: 8 min.

I’m captivated by artesian wells. I’ve scoured newspaper archives, engaged with experts, and consulted official state resources to find as many as I can. Specialized sources abound online, but sometimes a simple Google search is all it takes to find new information. Last December, one led me to uncover three in a Madison County campground! Unfortunately, I discovered that winter is the worst time to find flowing wells.

I’ll never forget the time I first found a flowing artesian well. Twenty years old and just off a late-night call center shift, I crossed an iron bridge in Delaware County, Indiana, and encountered two massive boulders with water gushing from some source in between. I had no idea what I’d seen, but I eventually identified the site as an artesian well. Research eventually led me to about twenty around my part of the state by 2020 or so, but then the trail dried up.

I thought East-Central Indiana was tapped out. My regular sources sure were! I turned to Google in desperation and plugged a generic string of keywords into the search box. A quick click to the image pane led me to a map of the Anderson / Muncie KOA I’d never seen. Sure enough, zooming in toward the fishing pond revealed an artesian well labeled on the map.

Artesian wells tap into water from a confined aquifer, or a layer of rock or sand underground holding water under pressure. The force of water against rock causes it to rise naturally to the surface of the well without a pump. In some cases, water will flow up and out! It all depends on the level of the water table, known as the piezometric surface. 

Most of Central Indiana’s flowing artesian wells date to the natural gas boom that flourished around 1890. After the gas reservoirs were depleted, water gradually infiltrated the old wells’ compromised casings. Eastern Madison County was home to tons of old gas wells thanks to the industrious Bronnenberg family, but the topography of the White River Valley meant that many wound up flowing with water.

Frederick Bronnenberg was one of Union Township’s first settlers¹. Eventually, he became one of Madison County’s most “energetic and progressive” pioneers². Believe it or not, the diligent Bronnenberg established a sawmill, grist mill, distillery, and woolen factory before he died³! By 1901, some of his holdings around Chesterfield had passed down to grandsons Carl and William Bronnenberg⁴.

I’m aware of two flowing wells located on William Bronnenberg’s property. I’ve driven by them numerous times but haven’t been able to capture photos as they’re situated on private land. I learned about the first one on Carl’s old property when I stumbled across the campground map. I was shocked to find that a traditional campground existed in Chesterfield! I’ve driven State Road 32 from Muncie to Anderson nearly 6,000 times, but I’d never seen it. 

As it turns out, the campground sits about a quarter mile north of my typical route and dates back to the late 1960s. Founded as North 40 Park, the grounds were said to be “near enough for convenience but far enough for seclusion⁵.” An early ad in the Anderson Daily Bulletin described “ponds with all kinds of fish, flowing wells, [and] a maze of trails⁶.” 

The mere mention of a flowing well in the newspaper write-up was enough to convince me to investigate further last summer. Bypassing the camp’s check-in station felt a little suspicious during peak season, but I was determined and drove past the owner’s house. Unfortunately, my awkward, curious loop around the fishing lake only disappointed me. I found a sign that warned against drinking water from the pond but encountered little else.

I’d been skunked! I licked my wounds until 2023, my first full year at a new job in Anderson. I passed the turnoff to the campground every day, and the promise of a new-to-me flowing well seemed to mock me from afar. I eventually screwed up the courage to ask a social media group about the campground well last December. Someone familiar with the property mentioned they remembered six! Soon after, I received a message from a fellow enthusiast named Dean Alger.

Dean sent me a recent photo of the flowing well at the Chesterfield campground he’d taken. Surprisingly, the warning sign that caught my attention wasn’t related to the lake- it was posted about the well itself! I realized it stood just behind where I’d previously driven, just where the map indicated. A camper must have obscured it during my trip around the park.

I headed back to Chesterfield and the well was covered with a tarp. Apparently, the owner of the nearest camper pays special attention to it during the winter months⁷. In addition to the cover, the well was outfitted with a hose to pipe the flow away from the concrete trough it usually drains through. I followed the hose to the lake and, sure enough, a constant stream of reddish water spat forth! I opened my phone to thank Dean for pointing me in the right direction, but another message caught my eye.

I don’t know how I missed it, but Dean shot over another message about a second flowing well just west of the one I was standing at. A former campground employee he ran into said he and his son had buried the well and piped it into the pond after it turned the lawn into a swamp some years ago⁸. I clambered across the shore and found it in no time.

At first glance, I would never have suspected that the water trickling from a narrow plastic pipe was a flowing well. Yet, upon closer inspection, the tell-tale rusty hue was unmistakable. I’m usually cautious about drinking from random pipes that spend much of the year submerged, but a quick taste from my cupped hand revealed a flavor reminiscent of nearly every other flowing well I’ve encountered.

Dean and I aren’t the only locals infatuated with flowing wells. My friend Elaine is too! She lives nearby, so I texted her about the wells as I was leaving the park. I was pulling into my driveway back in Muncie when Elaine replied. After she found them both, a staffer she ran into told her about a third on a trail headed back to the river. I raced back to the campground as fast as possible and met Elaine at the trailhead.

Elaine guided me toward an island in the White River. We soon came across this pipe. Water wasn’t flowing, but its surroundings showed tell-tale signs of its provenance. The moist, mossy growth around its base was colored with rust! Just above it, part of the metal lip was worn away where water once flowed over. The well wasn’t gushing in December, but it was obvious that it hadn’t been dry for long. I wondered if it was one of the Bronnenberg’s original gas wells.

I’d have loved to seen water gushing from the third well, but the water table’s been pretty low this year. I haven’t seen the Moonville well or the Mt. Pleasant Cemetery well flow in six months or more, and I hope it isn’t a continuing trend! Three more apparently await discovery at the campground in Chesterfield. I’m already blocking out time to go find them, and I hope the three I featured today will all flow freely by the time I return.

Sources Cited
1 Kingman Brothers. (1880). History of Madison County, Indiana with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches. Chicago, IL.
2 Forkner, J. & Dyson, B. (1914). Historical Sketches and Reminiscences of Madison County, Indiana. book. Anderson, IN.
3 The Bronnenbergs (n.d.) Mounds State Park Interprative Services. Indiana Department of Natural Resources [Indianapolis]. Pamphlet.
4 (1901). Union Township. An atlas of Madison County, Indiana. map, Cleveland, OH; American Atlas Company. 
5 Hey, You! The Wonder North 40 Park Has Big Plans! (1967, May 21). The Anderson Herald. p. 39.
6 North 40 Park Offers Camping Facilities Near City (1968, May 14). The Anderson Bulletin. p. 10. 
7 Alger, D. & Shideler, T. (2023, December 28). Personal communication.
8 (See footnote 7).