It sounded incredible to me, too…but a 1940s survey by the City of Olympia identified 96 active artesian wells and springs in the downtown area. They supplied water for restaurants, steam trains, water fountains and industry in a city where it was cheaper to drill your own well than pay the high prices demanded by the private water companies. I could only name one artesian well, in the Diamond Parking lot on 4th Ave., so what happened to the other 95?

I read a subsequent study done in 1994 by Thurston County and Friends of Artesians which located 31 wells still functioning. The last study, in 1999, conducted by LOTT Wastewater Management, found only 19 wells and 3 springs. The numbers were dwindling, indeed. Were there some charming watering holes I didn’t know about that could disappear any time now?

Using the maps from the 1999 study, I spent an afternoon exploring whether or not there were other artesian wells accessible to the public.

Two of the existing wells, #32 and #34, supply drinking water to The Spar and The Reef. Many other artesian wells emerge into downtown buildings, and then are plumbed directly into the sewer outflow such as U.S. Bank, Bamboo Restaurant, Bayview Market, the YMCA, Olympia Fireplace and Old Town Bicycle.