Read time: 3 min.

Some places in the countryside don’t look like much at first glance. There’s no historic marker, no crumbling brick, and no story spelled out in bronze. Sometimes, just a patch of grass along a rural road and the faint suggestion that something unusual is happening underground is enough for me to stop! Most often, those are flowing wells. Unfortunately, the one I most recently passed isn’t flowing. 

What I decided to call the Hayden well pops up from the ground on twenty-four acres once owned by E.J. Hayden during the East-Central Indiana gas boom. It sits -I don’t know, maybe twenty feet back- from County Road 750-West in rural Harrison Township. Still, it’s pretty hidden if you don’t know what you’re looking for.

When I first encountered the Hayden well back in 2021, its squat standpipe poured into a grassy spot from the top of a mossy enclosure. Water pooled around it, ultimately draining into Jake’s Creek somehow. The rivulet, if there was one, wasn’t immediately apparent.

I happened past the well the other day for the first time in several years. It was dry, but water pooled inside its casing. I’m no geological or hydrological expert, but I wonder if the confined aquifer the well draws from was in need of a recharge. Water was there, spanning down hundreds of feet, but there didn’t appear to be enough oomph for it to rise and pour out at the surface. 

Seen in that light, the Hayden well doesn’t feel like an anomaly so much as a clue. In recent months, I’ve run into more than a few artesian wells that have gone quiet while others, like the ever-reliable well in Granville continue to gush without hesitation. Nevertheless, that’s sort of frustrating- I love artesian wells! Flowing water brings a sense of clarity and focus to a chaotic mind- at least for me. 

The contrast is hard to ignore. Whatever’s happening beneath Delaware County isn’t uniform or simple; I hope it’s uneven, localized, and largely invisible. Nevertheless, I’m hoping that the old Hayden well -and some others I’ve recently visited- burble up again soon.