Lost Well Cap, Found In Freeport, Maine, With A Metal Detector
It isn’t always that I am called out to find someone’s lost ring. I have searched and found other items, such as keys, property markers, water shutoff valves, phones, etc.. Today was a first for me, a Well Cap needed to be located, in case the Well Pump failed.
I received a message from Karen. She and her husband had purchased their home 8 years earlier but had never been able to locate the Well, because the Well Cap was not visible, but buried somewhere, on the property. Now, I have never had a well so I knew absolutely nothing about them. I asked Karen some questions and she replied, with the following
“We are in Freeport, Maine. The well cap would be thick metal and approximately 5 inches diameter attached to metal piping. Most well caps stick out of the ground several inches so we think ours was buried possibly under our flower bed when the house was built. We know some parameters such as where the line comes out of the house and how far it has to be from the septic tank and leech field (which we know the exact locations of). Our yard isn’t terribly big”. Karen also sent a photo of a cast iron Well Cap.
I told Karen that I shouldn’t have any problems, finding the well cap, as long as it wasn’t too deep and out of the range of my detectors. We then agreed to meet at her home, today, at 10:30am. I arrived at 10:30am and was greeted by Karen. Her husband had run an errand and would be back shortly. Karen took me to her neighbors homes and I saw two Well Caps, above ground. I then tested the Well Caps, on my detector and they both rang up as ferrous metals, ringing up in the 90’s, on my Minelab Manticore. As I was finishing up my testing, Karen’s husband, Andrew arrived home.
Andrew explained that the Well Cap should be a minimum of 100’, from the leach field and Andrew knew where the leach field is. So we grabbed my 300’ tape measure and measured out 100’ from the leach field. This put the search area, near the flower garden, with bark mulch and a little of the lawn. Since it is supposed to be a minimum of 100’, Karen and Andrew also thought it could be on the other side of the driveway. We decided to start the search, at the 100’ mark and perform a grid search of the lawn, leading up to and including the flower garden. I was finding many ferrous targets, but in my mind, I didn’t think they would be the Well Cap. The targets didn’t seem big enough to be the Well Cap, but we need to check the targets out anyways. If it was a ferrous target, we dug it and on every occasion, the ferrous targets turned out to be many different sized nails. After I finished the flower garden area, I started grid searching the lawn, from the garden, to a tree, next to the road drainage gulch. After 15 – 20 minutes I received a strong signal, in the ferrous range, but reading much lower on my VDI screen, than the test Well Caps, at the neighbors homes. The target was very large, in area and Andrew started digging. At about 5” down, we still couldn’t see anything but my pinpointer was still picking up a large target, just another inch or so, in the hole. Andrew put the shovel, back in the hole and he hit something hard. As he scraped the soil away, the white cover of the Well Cap appeared. We had found it, and both Andrew and Karen were elated. After 8 years of living there, they finally knew where the Well Cap was. No more worrying about a Well Pump failure, they couldn’t fix, because they didn’t know where the Well Cap was. It turns out the Well Cap is just under 100’, from where we measured from, in the leach field and we started searching about 10’, from where we thought it would be. Andrew isn’t sure if we measured from the right location, in the leach field but we were put in the general location. That’s why when you don’t find your target, you just keep expanding the search, until you find it. If we hadn’t found the Well Cap, in this area, we were going to search the other side of the driveway. Thankfully that search was not needed.
Karen and Andrew measured out the Wells Cap location, from an area on their porch and now know the location, whenever they will need to access the Well Cap. Andrew is also going to check into seeing if the Well Cap could be modified, so that it is slightly above ground, rather than buried, 6 or 7 inches deep.
Karen and Andrew’s smiles were big and very satisfying to see. So, even though this wasn’t a wedding ring, engagement ring or another piece of sentimental jewelry, the satisfaction for my clients and myself, was just as great. It’s always a great feeling to be able to help and make people happy 😃
