The First Water Well in Salina

By Mike Durall

In the mid-1800s, a man named A. G. Stanton wrote a poem titled Legend of the Smoky. Two stanzas are:

There is an old, old legend
Told by the western man,
That they who drink of the Smoky’s tide,
Shall return to drink again. 

They may wander to the eastward,
To the western mountains high,
But they wander to the Smoky
Once again before they die. 

About that time, in 1859, one of the city founders, Alexander Campbell wrote an account of his two companions, James Muir and William Phillips, in their attempt to dig a water well.

He wrote, “When I came to this place in July of 1858, the Smoky Hill River was a beautiful clear stream and had plenty of good water. There was a nice spring coming out of the west bank just above where the Iron Avenue bridge now stands. We got our drinking water here and carried it to the house in buckets.” 

He continues, “But in August in commenced to rain and it kept up until the river was bank full of muddy water so we had no water we could drink except what rainwater we caught in a barrel.” 

“Mr. Muir and Mr. Campbell commenced to dig a well; when they got down about twenty feet, they struck water, but quicksand came in as fast as the water. They tried to sink a wall, but it would not stand.” 

Mr. Muir came to see me and said, “If you give me a bucket with a cover, I will go get some cool water.” I gave him a bucket and he rode off on his horse. He was gone a good while and when he came back, I asked him where he got it, he said over near the Saline River where there was a spring. He must have ridden six miles and swam the Saline River for that one bucket of water. 

Ever persistent, the two men kept working on the well until they struck gravel. Campbell added, “We had a fine well with plenty of good clean water we needed for the half dozen settlers and their stock. That was the first water well in Salina. It was located just south of Iron Avenue, a few feet east of the alley that runs between Fifth Street and Santa Fe.”