One hell of a well

[JakePhelps]

sounds neat! i would get a 250 pound pull and instead of a rope use a really good chain. i am curious about that huge piece of metal down there...maybe a metal chest full of gold

 

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[rockitz]

drop a dredge tube
down in to that sucker...set up a sluece box that runs the water back to the well.

 

[Old Prospector]

Hey Coop..... Let me tell you a well story. In a book was a story about an Indian chief who
was paid four kegs of gold coins for his tribe's land. He started home, but hid the gold along
the way. The tribe decided he should die, so some guys went out to meet him. They killed
him, so the gold was lost. I went to see the guy that wrote the book. He told me the gold
had been found. Back when it was illegal to own gold, a moonshiner got word the revenuers
were in the area. He let his boy down into an old, dried out well, then lowered his moonshine
to be stored for safe keeping. When the heat was over, he lowered the boy again to get the
shine back. The boy found a gold coin. The guy had the boy dig up the bottom of the well,
so they got the coins. The next fool thing the guy did was to melt the coins down and sell
the gold to a jewelry maker.
So, there may be anything or nothing at the bottom of the well. I would try the camera first,
but would not expect to see much. Then try the dredge/suction hose. A dredge should pull
up all the debris and stuff at the bottom without having to move all of the water. The lift
distance for the water will only be from the top of the water to the surface, but will be the
full distance for the objects picked up.
Good luck. You can do it, just keep at it. Keep us posted.
Old Prospector

 

[OKIE]

My grandpa has a old well on an old 1800's home place.
The well is about 200 yards from a old wagon trail, that was used
to cross a river heading to Fort Washita. This Fort was held by the REB's
in the last years of the C. W.
Is it possible for any thing could be in this well!!!!

Thanks & HH
Ray

 

[Diamond Spike]

Hey Dcooper1 your liable find anything down there. Guns, gold, coins, anything from what you've said. Train station and hotel well. It sounds like a promissing spot. Good luck.

Keep us posted



HH
Diamond Spike

 

[Jeffro]

You can get an underwater video camera for a lot less than that, or build a sealed, weighted box for one. Somewhere on this site is a post about a guy who home built an ROV for about 300 bucks, camera, drives, frame, everything.

A dredge pump won't lift that high. Unless maybe you get the engine/pump combo suspended on a line and keep it at water level as its going down.

They rent submersibles at the rental shops, for pumping out basements, etc. that get flooded when the pump goes out. One with high head is what you want, remember it has to push the weight of that water straight up 40 feet! probably need some firehose too, instead of that blue layflat stuff.

best of luck, and I hope you find some goodies!

 

[cavedog]

This may be a dumb solution, but could you make some sort of clam-shell type scoop out of large PVC pipe and attach it to several sections of one inch PVC glued together (the stuff is relatively cheap) with a rope running through it to the clam shell at the end. Drop the clam-shell to the bottom and pull the rope to close the shell and bring it up. You will likely get lots of empties but a few hits would be fun. I'm sure some of the engineer types could come up with a better design.

Happy hunting.

Eric

 

[gldhntr]

okie you need to check your well as the rebs were famous for using wells to dispose of everything from trash, to arms/cannon, to payrolls to keep yankees from getting them...........

 

[Aufinder01]

Hi,
You need to build an AIR LIFT, get a couple sections of PVC 4" pipe and an air compressor. This is an easy thing to get plans for and use and make. It'll work just like a dredge and you can recover alot of stuff.

Aufinder01

 

[suwannee pirate]

This is how I would do it,get a rope ,a harness ,my dive gear and an old Farmall tractor with no brakes . Have someone you trust to lower you in , grab the good stuff ,leave the rest. Done Deal ! Bob aka Suwannee Pirate

 

[Ocaliman]

It's a dilemna I'm struggling with myself. I want a claw like they use in those toy machines...

Ask and ye' shall recieve... Check out this link for an item called a "Sampling Dredge". It is mainly used for taking bottom soil samples for biological and ecological study, but would work great in a situation like this...http://www.acornnaturalists.com/store/product1.asp?SID=2&Product_ID=613

 

[BjC]

Any updates dcooper?

 

[trapperjon]

Re: One hell of a well/ More on wells.Rancho Cucamonga,Calif.

While I was doing spray work for the Dept. of agriculture in R.C., my team enounered 1 house on a small bluff,with a old orange orchard{spraying for the Medfly}, that had 2 deep wells hidden in the back yard of the house. both these wells were covered with old wooden nailed togetcher tops,and were very deep. Another strange feather of this house was a stairway that went straight down from the inside of a outside door into a solid wall,about 6o ft. Other houses I encountered the the same area,had old ponds,empty swimming pools from the 20/30"s
and what I think was a reminets of a blacksmith shop. In Pomona calif.,I saw old cars in backyards,and 1 yard completely covered in tarped over antiques/cars/motorcycles. While putting traps up in Somis Calif,rural orchard,Iencountered a old chani linked fenced of area with old cars from the 50"s/60's. In Ojai,Calif. Isaw plenty of evidence of indian habitation,in rural orchards. In Fillmore Calif., I saw a 1920"s/30"s water tank truck sitting in a pasture,like this was the last place it stopped,still had the lic plate on it. There is treasure every you look,its mindboggleing.

 

[1320]

Any well that hasn't been previously cleaned will have thick muck at the bottom. Mud, decomposed leaves, sticks, rocks, trash, you name it...it will be there. Pumps, airlifts, dredges won't help you. It has to come out manually. Underwater cameras are of little use for finding the goodies because the good stuff is under the muck. Generally, the water is black from decomposing matter. Not to mention, the field of view is horrible. They have a tendancy to "magnify" what ever it is that you're looking at, especially underwater stuff. They are good for identifying hazards though, and there will be plenty.

Do be cautious. The potential for deadly air or lack of air is a REAL possibility.

One particular well that I dug could have very well taken my life....

I used a trash pump to drain all the water out, then marked the water depth. Returned three days later to do the dig and the water level hadn't risen at all, so, I assumed "dry well". After digging out four feet of muck, I finally hit the bottom and commenced to cleaning out the area where the well lining (rock) and bedrock joined. As I freed up the muck, the well began to refill in a hurry! The muck served to damn up the well. In less than five minutes, the well had 15 feet of water in it. Thank goodness for careful planning and solid safety gear.

Yes, wells are great places to find goodies but do use the utmost of caution.

And watch for snakes this time of year!!!!!!