New England dowsing

[Grahame]

Witchcraft? Voodoo? Amid historic drought, more are turning to an ancient practice in their quest for water.
Scientists scoff, but dowsers insist their forked sticks really work.

IPSWICH — When Elizabeth Green found herself in dire need of a new well-water source to sustain her five-acre hillside plot this summer, the 40-year-old farmer did not turn to scientists or surveyors.

She didn’t call in a team of hydrogeologists, with their fancy drone footage, and satellite data, and infrared technology.

Instead, she phoned 79-year-old Peter Britton of Hamilton, a man with faded blue jeans and an oddly shaped stick — known colloquially as a dowsing rod — whose preternatural ability to identify underground water sources has routinely left her flummoxed.

“I don’t know what he’s doing, and I don’t know how he does it,” says Green, executive director of the Three Sisters, a nonprofit community farm that provides crops to food-insecure people throughout Essex Country. “But I’ve seen the results.”

Dowsing, or water divining as it’s sometimes called, has been described as “witchcraft,” “nonsense” and “voodoo” — an old-wives’ tale long written off by scientists.

But in the midst of an historic drought that left groundwater dangerously hard to come by, those in need of a consistent water source appear to be shelving skepticism, turning increasingly to the centuries-old practice to fill the void. Even after recent rains, all of Massachusetts still faces drought conditions, according to state officials.

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[mike]

Caterina Heights has 30 Ltr a minute at 68 feet down, but it rises from the south at 1000 plus feet under pressure, good clean water. And that’s just a quick dowse. Sure more springs are here in the area, looking very green with good soil and trees.