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V L a s V e g a s , N e v a d a REVIEW JOURNAL J u n e 2 3 , 1 9 4 5 . As New Well Blows! And the desert shall blossom ] like a rose . . . This Biblical expression^ may come true in Clark county, ac­cording to indications of a new water well which “just blew itself in” eight 'miles southwest of Las, Vegas on the old Los Angeles * highway,' near Paradise Valley and Hidden Wells ranch. : The new well is spurting' Iff 168,000 gallons of water a day, :|or 2,200 gallons a minute and: causing a virtual miniature river- 3while new casings are .being; awaited to cap the geyser. Coming in,unexpectedly at 335 j feet, the water burst into a 25; foot geyser and formed a stream: head six feet deep and now is: running over a mile and half, before being absorbed into desert f sands. According to Harry Jameson,: | Nevada State water survey offi-! ! cial, the well is one of the larg-; est in this area and among the; leading water wells of the state. ? Possibility was expressed that a new underground lake might have been tapped as other wells l in a three-quarter mile radius; of the new one are all producing: from a 600 foot depth and only! between 10 and 50 gallons a min-1 ute. The well was being dug by . Henry H. Smith on a, turkey 1 ranch operated by Nanyu “Tom- J my” Tomigasu, Japanese, who 1 was born near the site of the | well 26 years ago. The drilling outfit was builtj by "Tommy” and according to ] Smith, who has been a well dril­ler for 20 years, is “one of the j best and simplest I’ve ever seen.” i The new casing will be ready | Saturday, it is expected, and the f free flowing “river of water” | will be stopped. At present it | has been impossible to dam the 1 flow—even with the building of 1 weirs. “We really can’t say we drilled f 0 Continued., from Page 1 this well. We just tapped a sup­ply that literally blew itself in. A two and one-half pound rock blew up with the water bending our eight inch in diameter cas­ing,” Smith reported. s New Well Not To Influence Water Sources (Related Story on Page 10) Fears that the new water well which blew in near the Hidden Wells ranch in Paradise Valley might seriously impair other wa­ter flows from nearby wells, were allayed today by Harry Jameson, Nevada state water* survey official- In Vicinity avoid any hardship on other property owners in the area. Jameson declared it was too early yet to say definitely whethy er or not the new strike might indicate a new source of water supply. 1 Although the new well started j producing 3,168,000 gallons of . water a day, or 2200 gallons per: i minute, today it had dropped to J i 2000 gallons a minute or 2,880,000; I gallons a day, he revealed. The well is the biggest strike? : in 15 years, being second only to j the Union Pacific well which now j is slightly below the new one. However, Jameson pointed out, ] j even if the flow remains this! ; high, it will be forced down to a i: ’maximum of around 360 gallons? ja minute to comply with gov-? ernment regulations for the size : of the property oh which it was] dug. The property is only 80 : acres and the peak allowed is; 648,000 gallons per day per acre,' Jameson declared. j - Other Wells in the area have i; J'b’een temporarily; affected by the } j ne Wgeyser and their flow has i (dropped approximately one- | third, a survey showed. | This does not, Jameson point- : j out, mean any less water avail- able to these wells, but. merely : : that it might have to- he pumped, j “It will not be a permanent ] j cutback for the other wells any- t i way,” he said. “The flow for s the past week has been free and I i we have been unable ' to check 1 it, but within a very few days we will have it under control and limited.” The owner of the property, Henry Wick, who was contacted in the east, agreed to stand the expense of any work needed to properly control the flow and -o-