Artesian wells kept the county from drying up

readyOnce upon a time, we used to call Orange County semiarid. Now strike the “semi.” We are about as arid as the Sahara.

Were it not for the water we import, we would have a few million very, very thirsty people. We usually don’t get much rain, and when it does rain, everything always seems to flood. A good storm finds me in the backyard, readying my ark.

All this is a roundabout way of getting to why Orange County in those early days was only semiarid.

Believe it or not, there existed in the northern part of the county and in Los Angeles County what we called artesian wells. These were spontaneous bubbling bodies of water that gushed from the ground without any help from man. They proliferated in an area surrounding the present town of Artesia.

Oh, the water didn’t shoot up in the air like Old Faithful in Yellowstone Park. It just bubbled out. Nevertheless, they existed.

I used to come from the city to Balboa on the Pacific Electric and looked forward, in my boredom, to the artesian wells. Having grown up in an arid area of Wyoming, I was fascinated with and by water. Let others worship snow-crowned mountains or flowered meadows. For me, it’s the ocean, and if there’s no ocean around then an artesian well will do.

The wells are, of course, long gone together with the saber-toothed tiger, the giant sloth and quicksand.

As I write this, it is raining, so I have to stop now and go out and finish my ark. When it’s done, I’m willing to bring aboard the obligatory animals, two by two, but I draw the line at snakes.

Noah had his place, and he did a great job, except why he had to save snakes I have never understood. Rats, toads, scorpions, OK, but snakes -- ugh.

* ROBERT GARDNER was a Corona del Mar resident and a judge who died in August, 2005. This column originally ran in January of 2002.

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