SCOUTING YESTERDAY | Clogs, water scarcity bust South Dakota’s artesian well boom
This week in South Dakota history Jan. 2-8
Vulnerabilities in South Dakota’s reliance on the artesian wells that had brought global acclaim to places like Sanborn County and the James River Valley were revealing themselves 125 years ago.
The Daily Deadwood Pioneer-Times reported on Jan. 8, 1901, that towns across South Dakota and the region were struggling to keep taps flowing from the naturally pressurized water spouts.
But the mud and sand clogs blamed for increasingly frequent gaps in water flows to South Dakotans were only a precursor to more challenging dilemmas that ensured the man-made geysers would not be a reliable water source long term.
