An interesting find on our property is that we have a creek running through the property and the flow ( guess it to be 500-1000 gpm) is largly due to artesian wells that are upstream several miles. I talked to one old-timer about a well-drilling about 50 years plus ago that went bad and the flow created the head waters for the creek or a tributary leading into it.
The property, 42 acres has been in the family for about 100 years and just a few years ago it was handed down to my generation and I decided to walk it. I was following the creek at the edge of the property and saw one and then two small pipes 1" diameter on the banks of the creek flowing about 3-5 GPM each into the creek. These were well into the woods and must have been hand pounded in drill points many years ago. BTW, the creek has been known to harbor a number of browns that lurk in the shady holes and are tough to catch yet a real pleasure when done so.
Our property is also part of a several square mile oil field in the West Branch Michigan area and we always have had 2-3 wells pumping oil out of them. My grandfather, when he first dug the pond had the oil company pipe over some excess natural gas to his house and the pond and he had a pipe in the middle of the pond sticking up 6 feet out of the water with a 2 foot high perpetual flame burning 24x7. Besides looking awesome and giving some great light for evening fishing, it was an effective tool to attract the bugs, kill them and grille them up as tasty morsels for the trout. A real natural resource wonder. a free flowing artesian well, free natural gas, an effective bug zapper and a trout feeder to boot. Unfortunately the oil company doesn't supply natural gas to any of its land owners any more due to liability issues (don't you love lawyers.)
