I am having a hard time writing this all in a coherent manner, please bear with me. (A lot on my mind right now, kind of feeling )

I am buying some acreage very soon (closing is five days from now) in central Minnesota. I would like to have an artesian well on the property, but I don't know all that much about them. I really like the idea of having a well that doesn't require an electric pump to bring water to the surface.

My biggest concern is whether or not it is even possible on my property. I know two people who live within a few miles (one is two miles away, the other is seven) of the property that I am buying who have flowing artesian wells on their property, so I would think that it should be doable. I just don't know how finnicky they can be. My second concern is just how much it costs to have one drilled and installed. My understanding is that it would have to be drilled deeper than a standard well, but if the hole is a smaller diameter and no pump is needed, would it offset the cost?

There are no structures or improvements on the property, other than a driveway approach. I would like to build a small house on it someday, but not any time soon. In the meantime I am planning on having some sort of structure placed on it for short stays, and an easy source of drinking water would be great.

What say the hive?

I'm pretty sure that an artesian well is also known as a spring

An artesian well is only possible under specific geological conditions - i.e. when the pressure on the aquifer is greater than the pressure needed to raise the water to surface level.

Those conditions are fairly unusual these days, and I doubt you'll be able to buy some random property and get lucky.  Especially in Minnesota.

This

My understanding, which I gleamed from a hydrologist, is that there are very few...true artesian wells.

That being said, tap a hole, hook up a well and a solar rig....

Profit?

Artesian wells occur when the water in the strata where the well terminates is under enough pressure to force it up and out the pipe.
That might be possible on your property, or not.  Flow might be limited - 1-2 gpm, or it might be several gpm.

Talk to the well driller, and ask if it is possible.

If not, you might have water under enough static pressure to force it up to within a few feet of the well head, which would make for easy dipping by hand.  Or it might be within 20 or so feet of the top, which would make it easy to put a relatively inexpensive pitcher pump on top.  Or you can get a Bison brand or similar deep well pump.


There are a few artesian wells in this area, here and there, depending on the underlying strata.  There are a lot more wells where the water level is 10 or less feet below grade.



Once you get your structure up, a rain barrel for wash water and a couple of gallon jugs of drinking water will get you through a long weekend at the off grid cabin you are planning.

ask a local driller. around here it cost 28k for an artesian well, i have had about a dozen drilled for the homes I installed Geothermal heat pumps in. we used artesian wells as the shallow wells have too much bacteria iron in them and plug up the titanium plate frame heat exchangers.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

We had a well drilled for the church i used to go to.

They hit a artesian well that almost turned the rig over by washing out the crib blocks before they could get the drill out of the well casing

To this day that well still runs a 4" overflow and it was drilled at least 25 years ago

Cool.