Big Well (Kansas)

The Big Well, in Greensburg, Kansas, USA, is a water well that was designed to provide water for the Santa Fe and Rock Island railroads. [http://www.bigwell.org/bigwell.html Big Well official homepage] ] It was built in 1887 at a cost of $45,000, and served as the municipal water supply until 1932.

It is billed as the world's largest hand-dug well, at 109 feet deep and 32 feet in diameter. [Other hand-dug wells are much deeper, such as the Woodingdean Well in Brighton, England, but the Big Well's diameter gives it a greater total volume.] Only the Pozzo di S. Patrizio (St. Patrick's Well) built in 1527 in Orvieto, Italy, is larger, measuring 61 meters deep (200 feet) by 13 meters wide (42 feet). [ [http://www.umbriatravel.com/Orvieto/en/itineraries_Orvieto.asp St. Patrick's Well] ]

It was designated a National Museum in 1972; [ [http://www.worldslargestthings.com/kansas/handdugwell.htm Big Well] on World's Largest Things] in 1973 it was awarded an American Water Landmark by the American Water Works Association. [ [http://www.awwa.org/about/oandc/awards/WATERLAN.cfm Water Landmarks] from the website of the American Water Works Association]

Visitors entered the well for a small fee, descending an illuminated stairway to the bottom of the well.

Visitor center

The well had a visitor's center detailing the history of the well's construction. On May 4 2007, a tornado hit Greensburg, destroying the center. [Evidence of the destruction is based on a "Wichita Eagle"/Associated Press photo published [http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/WEATHER/05/05/severe.weather/newt1.1408.well.debris.ap.jpghere] on and hosted by CNN]

The visitor's center also displayed a Brenham half-ton (1,000 lb, 450 kg) pallasite meteorite recovered from the area. The meteorite was billed as the world's largest single-piece pallasite, [ [http://www.drilshop.com/hallfame/bookpg12.html Big Well Booklet] , Chamber of Commerce, Greensburg, Kansas, written 1987, viewed 6 May 2007.] but that title is held by other samples. It was reported that the Big Well visitor center was destroyed, and the meteorite was missing [ [http://www.wibw.com/news/headlines/7353996.html Greensburg loses unique town treasure too] ] on May 7, after an EF5 tornado destroyed the town. The meteorite, which was insured for $1 million, was later located underneath a collapsed wall and is being displayed temporarily at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays, KS. [ [http://www.kansas.com/233/story/63810.html Greensburg's famed meteorite found under rubble] ]

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