I just purchased a house, and I have a question about a spring/well looking thing attached to it. I couldn't figure out how to post pictures, so I linked to a question I asked on reddit with the pictures attached. I only got one answer, and a guy that works for me said to try out this forum. There is a well/spring looking thing attached to my pond (see link for pictures), there is a lot of debris at the bottom and it seems like there is no or minimal flow out of it to the pond. Do you think this is an old clogged spring, is that even a thing? There is definitely leakage out of the backside of the pond, you can see the water barely flowing out a tiny hole into a very wet marsh about 50x50 yds behind the pond. My main question is what do you think this is, or was. Thank you for your time, I can answer any questions if the explanation does not suffice.

Here is the link to the pictures https://www.reddit.com/r/ponds/comments/m4heah/question_about_pond_what_is_this_lots_of_debris/

Apologies if your not allowed to post links, I couldn't figure out how to upload the images.

Could be a spring, field tile, or artesian well. Either could have variable flow over any given year depending on rain and/or the level of the water table. You would likely need to dig it up to know what you have, but it looks nice, so you could always just enjoy it as is.

Here's the pics for your post...

Thank you sir.

I had a hole similar to yours at my old place that would produce water periodically, not much, but an obvious flow in the spring and sometimes fall. I dropped an auger in it once to open it up and see what would happen. It never produced water again. I guess I should have left well enough alone. Well, (no pun intended) I really didn't need a leg breaking hole hidden in the field anyhow.

I assume the last pic is of your dam seepage. Given that it is next to the stump...I'm going to guess that a stump root that grew towards the pond has rotted and allowed pond water to trickle out. Or, maybe an animal den that has compromised the works.

Nice work, QuarterAcre!!!

Do we all feel that the thing in the first picture is man-made?

Sure looks manmade to me

I have participated in the construction of a few spring box over the years. They are used to well natural springs and in some cases the construction of the well will also allow greater flow. My father-in-law bought a place in the 30s that had a spring box constructed on it that served a moon-shine still. It ran year round and eventually he used this water for drinking water piping it to his house in the 70s. He buried poly pipe 2 feet deep and dug the whole dang thing himself with a Maddox. His family was from Arkansas as I see your location is. Its rocky ground there and there are many springs. Many old homesteads used springs for water and if flow was sufficient they could multipurpose cool spring water to keep perishables (like dairy) longer.

If you prevent trees in the watershed of the spring, the flow might be stronger through the summer months. I do know that my father in law's spring became intermittent (would stop flowing) in the summer during the first decade of this century some 10 years after his death. I have to say, though I wish he was with us much longer, I am glad he didn't have to see the spring become unreliable. When he bought the place all the hilltops were tall grass prairie, when the spring could no longer carry flow through summer they were all covered in blackjack, post oak, and hickory. I think the trees are the reason the spring is intermittent now.

Thank you for all of your guys input. I will start by clearing out the debris in the bottom of the thing. My next project was to drain the whole pond and clean out all of the muck. One more thing while I got yall here. I was wondering about the water table because this pond is down the hill from the house I just bought. Next to my house is an old bucket well with alot of water at the bottom of it that never fluctuates. The "thing" in my pond is straight down the hill about 100 yds from my old stone bucket well. The elevation of water the level in bottom of my bucket well is probably 60' above the water level in my "pond thing". Maybe I need to do some more reading on water levels and tables but I would think that would make the water flow out of the "pond thing", I suppose I am assuming that they are connected in any way though.

I am pretty sure it's man made.

If the water in your bucket well is 60' above the pond level, then I would guess they are not interconnected.

My guess is also based on the water in the bucket well and pond being more 'static' than flowing.

I always thought that interconnected water had to level itself the same.

That whole scenario would be an interesting project for me. I would start by pumping the water out of the supposed spring area and see if and how fast it replenishes, you may be able to pipe it from a little reservoir off to the side to be able to redo the pond area, deepen it and clean out the muck, then divert the water back into the pond and have the potential of a spring fed pond.
I agree with QA that the leak by the tree stump looks like a rotted tree root or even an animal burrow that burrowed under the stump using the trees roots as support for the roof of their tunnel, which is a very common thing for burrowing animals to do.