I won’t pretend it was a bold prediction, but I had a hunch the artesian well at Mt. Pleasant Church Cemetery would bubble back to life again when I recently wrote about it. It’s one of the most unpredictable flowing wells I’ve ever come across! Sure enough, water was pouring out with more vim and vigor than I’ve ever seen last Sunday. As it turns out, nature doesn’t really do subtle: all the well needed was a couple of days of torrential rain to wake it up.
The well at Mt. Pleasant Church Cemetery was the second artesian well I ever stumbled across. It sits nestled at the base of the graveyard’s hill, a full twenty-four feet below the church that stands watch above. That elevation difference is what causes the water to flow without the need for a pump: confined between layers of rock, the water table extends into the hill. When it’s tapped, the pressure causes water to shoot up, over, and out.
Drinking from a well in a cemetery might sound a little questionable at first, but rest assured, its casing plunges hundreds of feet below any burials. In fact, the well at Mt. Pleasant Church Cemetery produces the coldest, crispest, and best-tasting water of the thirty-some artesian wells I’ve visited! Unfortunately, its independent streak means that the water’s not always available.
Slurping down cemetery water doesn’t unsettle me as much as hearing whispers that a once-reliable flowing well has run dry. Even though I knew its history, I couldn’t help but worry when I stopped by Mt. Pleasant Church Cemetery a couple of weeks ago and found that the well was quiet. Still, the familiar smear of rust-red iron was a sign the water hadn’t vanished; it’d just retreated for a while.
Sure enough, the well at Mt. Pleasant Church Cemetery is flowing again, clear and cold, as if nothing ever happened. Temperamental or not, it’s good to have it back in action. There’s something comforting about seeing and hearing the water as it gushes out at the foot of the hill.
