dSalado Water Supply Company well
comes in at 10,000,00 gallons a day
Salado Water Supply Company
1912: The Salado Well,
An Historical Perspective
By
Clarence F. Theis
In the last half of the 19th century my great grandfather, Ferdinand Theis, Sr. came to San Antonio, Texas. He purchased a farm of some four to five hundred acres ($2.00 acre) on the Salado River, Southeast of San Antonio. The farm was located between t he east bank of the Salado and on the West Side of the New Sulphur Springs Road. (The name of the road tells you something.) This area, now in the city limits, is known as Pecan Valley. When the land was taken into the city limits, the name of the New Sulphur Springs Road was changed to Roland Ave. This land is about two miles north of the Old George Dullnig Field. The story of George Dullnig and my Great Grandfather are interrelated. They were both concerned about water.
When my Great Grandfather came to this area, it must have been a beautiful land. The Salado evidently was a river. He stated that the Salado had an abundance of fish of many types and there were huge flocks of geese and ducks.
The Theis property, along with the Dullnig propert y is located in the bad water zone of the Edwards Aquifer. The December 1986 article in the STGS Bulletin stated that Mr. Dullnig got gas, oil, and sulphur wells, but no good water wells. Today in this area, Holt Machinery has a sulphur well.
This bad water zone was no problem to the settlers. They built their houses with tin roofs and installed gutters to catch the rain water. The water was piped from the gutters to a charcoal filter trap to remove all the impurities such as bird droppings on the roof. The rain water was then piped to a cistern. The cistern was located above or below ground. In my great grandfather's house, the cistern was located under the kitchen and a hand pump extended down into the cistern from the kitchen sink. This gave t hem their drinking water, but they had lots of livestock to water. The answer was the Salado. All along the Salado, the farmers used the water for their livestock, and sometimes for drinking. At that time it was safe for human consumption.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the headwaters of the Salado dried up. This created a problem for the people along the Salado and they formed the Salado Water Supply Company. Ferdinand Theis, Sr. went around to the farmers and collected $100.00 from each t o drill the Salado well. Some told him they would give the money after they got the water. Upon finally receiving the water, they said there was no need to donate because they already had water. \par \par Mr. Herman Eisenhauer gave an acre of land for the well si te which is located on the rear part of Fort Sam Houston. In 1912, Fort Sam Houston did not extend back to the Salado, The well is located near W. W. White Road and Nursery, just north of the Salado Park. The water well was drilled in 1912 (this is the 7 5th anniversary) to a depth of 702 feet, into the Edwards Aquifer. The well came in at 10,000,000 gallons of water per day or approximately 6,950 gallons per minute.
At a later date, the government expanded Fort Sam Houston and acquired all the land a round the well site. Since Fort Sam Houston owned all the land around the well, it attempted to claim the well, but was unsuccessful because the well belonged to the Salado Water Supply Company, a group of investors, not an individual.
The following article appeared in the October 12, 1912 edition of the San Antonio Light.
"SALADO RIVER NOW IS REALLY A RIVER
Well flowing 10,000,000 gallons a day. Supplies water for formally almost dry bed.
With the bringing in of the big well on the Salado River, mor e than 10,000,000 gallons of water flows daily into that erstwhile dry bed, making it a river in more than name. The well is the property of the Salado Water Supply Company, a concern composed of land owners in the vicinity, each of whom contributed to th e fund of about $4000, which paid for boring the well.
The well is twelve inches in diameter and came in at a depth of 650 feet on Thursday about noon. The flow at that time was estimated to be about 2000 gallons a minute. In the belief that a still lar ger flow would be encountered, Jacob Wolfe the driller, decided to go lower. About ten feet farther down, the drill pipe dropped abruptly for four or five feet and instantly there came up such a volume of water that the entire rig was in danger of being f orced out. The drill pipe was hastily removed and the full power of the well was seen. Driller Wolfe believes that the drop of several feet was into a cave of water which given an outlet, rushed upward. When drilling stopped, the well was 702 feet d eep. An estimate places the daily volume of the gusher at 10,000,000 gallons and during the time it has been running there has been no perceptible diminution of the flow.
The Salado Water Supply Company drilled the well to supply water for the creek in order that stock might be supplied and people living along it might have a good supply of water. No irrigation with the water will be permitted. Herman Eisenhauer gave the acre of land on which the well is situated and land owners made up the fund to drill. The trustees of the company are Ferdinand Theis, W. F. Kelsey, Herman Eisenhauer, William Icke and Dr. John V. Spring. The well is located about a quarter of a mile down the Salado from the big Brekenridge well of twenty-two inches in diameter. Proportionally the flow is said to be heavier than in that well."
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| "It's a gusher" Salado Water Supply Company well comes in at 10,000,00 gallons a day |
Members of the Salado Water Supply Company |
In 1925 my grandfather, Ferdinand Theis jr. had a well hand dug on the Theis property near the New Sulphur Springs Road. The well produced good drinkable water at a depth of about forty feet out of limestone gravel. This was the first well in the area. It produced a sufficient amount of water, but the water was hard.
A neighboring German farmer and blacksmith by the name of Paul Neitzel, made his own home built portable cable tool drilling rig, and started drilling water wells. Mr. Neitzel's drilling rig was constructed on a four-wheel trailer and was originally powered by a Ford Model T engine. He continued to drill water wells in the area for many years. In the 1960's the population had gr own tremendously in the area. With the population growth, came pollution.. These shallow wells became contaminated, but by this time suburban water was available to the area.
The story of the Salado River, the Salado well , the shallow wells and water leav es a distinctive pattern. In the middle of the 19th century the Salado was a beautiful river, but at the beginning of the 20th century, population and progress caused the headwaters to dry up. In the 1920's the 40 foot deep water wells in the limestone gravel produced good water for years, but in the 1960's population and progress caused these wells to become contaminated. In the last fourth of the 20th century, the Salado well has slowed up considerably and the creek water is no longer safe to drink, a gain, because of population and progress. How long will it be before population and progress destroys the Edwards Aquifer?