To Sink A Deep Well

TO SINK A DEEP WELL

The University Will Go Down 3,000 Feet

TO STRIKE GOOD WATER

If It Proves Necessary to Go That Deep

The Well will be Commenced on the Campus Next Week and will Give Some Interesting Geological Information.

Action was taken at the last meeting of the board of regents of the university, on a matter that was probably considered of so little moment that nothing has been said about the same. It was the letting of a contract with a Bay City party by the name of Mason to drill a well on the campus to a depth of not exceeding 3,000 feet. The object of this well is to be two fold. First to try and secure a supply of water for the boilers of the heating plant and the other buildings not impregnated with lime, and secondly, to find out what is the strata below the campus for educational purposes.

The idea of this well was first broached by ex-Regent Barbour, when he was a member of the board. His proposition was to purchase a piece of land in Pittsfield, where splendid flowing wells can be secured, put down wells, lay pipes to the foot of State and Parckard sts. and pump the water to campus. This proposition was discussed in all its phases until at the last board meeting on the motion of Regents Fletcher a contract was let to put down a drive well on the campus. Bids had been received from various parties but the one accepted seemed to be the most satisfactory. The contractors are to furnish everything including machinery, coal and iron casing. They are to receive for their work $2.50 a foot to a depth of 500 feet and after that $2 a foot to a depth of 3,00 feet. Taking in consideration that casing is worth 80 cents to $1 a foot this is a good contract for the university.

How far reaching in its future effects on Ann Arbor and vicinity the drilling of this well may prove cannot now be foretold. The campus must be over 40 feet higher than the court house square. This increase in height probably consists of sand and clay. If good water should be found below the clay and the well stops there, those that are interested in geology will be disappointed. In the court house will put down in 1871 shale was struck at 164 feet. At 330 feet brins of 50 degrees salometer was encountered. Bed of black bituminous shale were found at 469 feet. The work was discontinued at a depth of 755 feet the drill being in magnesian limestone. The log of this well was carefully kept by the state geologist the late Prof. Alexander Winchell. It is believed by some that if the depth of the Ypsilanti mineral wells are taken in consideration in connection with the lay of the land that the same Ypsilanti or Mt. Clemens mineral water will be struck at a depth of 1,050 to 1,125 feet. In the Dundee well, at a further depth of about 300 feet a second vein of mineral water was struck. With the latter well as a criterion Trenton Rock will be struck at a depth of from 2,600 to 2,800 feet possibly running close to the 3,000 feet the extent of the contract as to depth. If oil or gas should be struck it would mean very much to the university as it would provide the institution with its own fuel saving annually over $10,000 for coal.

The theory of the late Prof. Winchell and other geologists is that the entire state is underlaid with Trenton rock but that it lies in a bowl shape. Oil and gas is contained in this Trenton rock. The modern theory of our present state geological department is that oil and gas can only be secured in this rock where there is a dome or a sudden raise in this rock creating a place for the oil or gas to accumulate under pressure. They hold that only in such a place can these products be secured. This well may substantiate or overthrow these theories. Of not less value will be the determination of the fact that Ann Arbor is underlaid with Mt. Clemens or Ypsilanti mineral water. This may encourage the project of building a sanitarium to make use of the healing health giving wates.

The contractors will be in the city with their tools the beginning of next week. This well is to be located east and south of the power houses. The well will be started as a 12 inch hole. When rock is struck the bore will be reduced to 10-inch. The work f drilling this well will be watched with much interest. The people of Ann Arbor will be treated with the sight of the way a modern gas or oil well is put down. Superintendent Reeves proposes to keep a thorough record of the work. His present plan is to fill a glass test tube from the sand pump with each change in the formation. As has been said before how far reaching the effect of drilling a 3,00 foot well in Ann Arbor will be cannot yet be foretold.