I’ve been captivated by artesian wells ever since I first stumbled upon one during a midnight drive with friends. That chance encounter sparked a mission: to track down as many flowing wells as I can! So far, I’ve discovered 38 across eight counties. There are more out there, many tucked away on private property, but getting permission to visit them has been a challenge. While I continue to work on that, I thought I’d share my top five favorites. If you’re a fellow well hunter or know of one I’ve missed, please -PLEASE- let me know in the comments! I’m thirsty for more.
People often use the terms “artesian well” and “flowing well” interchangeably. They’re pretty much the same in a square-rectangle sense, but here’s the difference: all flowing wells are artesian wells, but only some artesian wells flow. Artesian wells allow water to escape from a pressurized aquifer through a pipe towards the highest point of the water table, an imaginary line called the piezometric surface. Often times, the pressure is enough for water to come up and out! That’s what makes them flowing wells.
The Moonville well
The Moonville flowing well sits just a mile west of the Delaware/Madison line. Situated on East County Road 500-North at Killbuck Creek, it appears on the Indiana Geological & Water Survey’s Petroleum Database Management System map as an old gas well on land leased from Isham W. Burton, a Richland Township farmer who owned twenty-four acres spanning both sides of the creek1. Unfortunately, it’s been several years since the Moonville well has flowed. The pipe may be cracked or clogged, but I hope it can be saved.
The Gernand-Thompson well
The Gernand-Thompson well is the second extant and third overall flowing artesian well on Lee Pit Road. Believed to mark the site of what was once an 1,800-foot-deep gas well2, it sits half of a mile north of Lee Pit Road’s intersection with Jackson Street Pike or State Road 332. The well looks remote in all of these pictures, but it’s only two hundred feet from the interstate! It amazes me to think of how many people speed past this place every day without any clue that it exists.
The Rangeline Nature Preserve well
Most of Central Indiana’s flowing artesian wells date to the natural gas boom from the 1890s. In those days, Samuel Hughel owned the land that Madison County’s Rangeline Nature Preserve now sits on3. Born in Eastern Madison County in 1859, Hughel owned a store and worked as a salesman before his death at fifty-six4. Today, partially submerged, the Rangeline flowing well pokes up from the middle of a lagoon!
The Danforth well
Francis Marion Danforth was a farmer who owned 267 acres in western Madison County when the Indianapolis Gas Company drilled on his property. It’s hard to imagine now, given how remote the area feels, but back in 1901, the old road to Perkinsville passed right by the site. Today, Danforth’s land holds a solitary reminder of the gas boom; a flowing well. Water trickles from the top.
The Granville well
I’ll never forget the first time I encountered a flowing artesian well. It was midnight, and I was 20, fresh off a shift at my call center job. Instead of heading straight home, I often explored the countryside by car. One night, completely lost, I crossed an iron bridge and found myself staring at two enormous boulders—water gushing out of them like something out of a biblical miracle. I later learned that’s not what I’d seen, but the flowing well at Granville will always be my favorite. It set me off on my journey to find all of them I can!
Flowing water is dynamic. Aside from that, they’re just cool. Wells like the ones I’ve featured connect us to the past in a uniquely visceral way, as a reminder of how nature and history intertwine. Their continuous flow serves as a living testament to the geological forces and human endeavors that shaped their existence! Beyond their historical significance, though, there’s something undeniably captivating about them. Watching water bubble up from the earth feels like witnessing a secret being revealed, a quiet marvel that’s just plain cool. I can’t wait to find more.
Sources Cited
1 Madison County (1903, February 1). Oliver C. Steele [Spiceland]. Map.
2 Gerhart, L. (1982, September 18). Artesian about in Delaware County – wells, that is. The Muncie Evening Press. p.
3 (1901). Anderson Township. An atlas of Madison County, Indiana. map, Cleveland, OH; American Atlas Company.
4 Funeral of Samuel hughel On Sunday (1915, October 1). The Anderson Herald. p. 1.
