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crono141 t1_j6fdor8 wrote

Reply to comment by mostlygray in Eli5....can you dig a well anywhere and hit water...and how did the early ranchers in the West know where to dig for water. Especially in the really dry areas? by pinkshrinkrn

Should have tried dowsing. Would have found it lots faster.

/s in case it isn't obvious.

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Jammin-91 t1_j6fs2aw wrote

What's dowsing?

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nebman227 t1_j6fst27 wrote

Holding two "dowsing rods" in your hands and letting them "lead" you to groundwater. It doesn't work, of course. The reason that it looks like it works is the fact mentioned in other comments that there is groundwater pretty much everywhere.

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Jammin-91 t1_j6ftopg wrote

Ahh, I see. I'm sure this works, and if you can't find "dowsing rods," you can grab a tree branch that has a "Y" shape, and this can function as "dowsing rods"

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mostlygray t1_j6g3z7z wrote

They did try hiring a water witch. That didn't work.

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MrEZW t1_j6iy80d wrote

There are people out there who believe in this shit so much that they'd trust their job with it. I worked with a foreman who believed he could locate buried utilities like phone lines, power lines, water pipes, etc... with some dowsing rods he made out or #4 copper wire. Sometimes he would even second guess the locators markings & dowse them just to make sure. Those guys use specialized machines to locate buried utilities. I never had the heart to tell him & I just played along with it.

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GamerMomm t1_j6goa34 wrote

From ranching/farming folk and can confirm that this method works.

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Tashus t1_j6jfa53 wrote

>can confirm that this method works.

No you can't. Unless you dug wells everywhere the dousing rods didn't indicate, so that you could check that there wasn't water there, then all you've done is dig wells roughly at random, or with some intuition based on geography and flora.

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GamerMomm t1_j6kkh5o wrote

It worked on our lands, for sure. We don’t own the land anymore, but on the 4000+ hectares we had it sure as shit did. Up until the early 2000s, we still paid a water witch and he sure AF helped us dig our wells.

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Tashus t1_j6kmcll wrote

No, it didn't. You dug wells and found water, but you could have dug them in the places that it didn't indicate, and you probably would have also found water. It's nonsense.

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GamerMomm t1_j6kuqyf wrote

Yes, we did.

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Tashus t1_j6kut1j wrote

You did what?

Edit: You've blocked me. I get it. But truly, dousing doesn't work. Dig a hole, and you'll usually hit water. Yes, a douser can tell you "dig here", and lo and behold you'll hit water. You would also be likely to hit water if you dig the places where they don't tell you to dig.

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