Hole opens at Centre Elementary
By ROWENA PLETT
Reporter / photographer
A group of Centre Elementary School students were playing soccer just east of the school after school Wednesday when Benjamin Wirtz tripped and fell.
He looked back and said, "There's a hole back there."
Sure enough, further investigation revealed a hole about 16 inches in diameter. Roots from nearby trees crisscrossed the opening.
Custodian Lawrence Rindt had mowed the school yard that day and had seen no signs of a hole.
When Demitry Evancho, superintendent of Centre USD #397, was notified, he ordered the hole covered and a temporary fence placed around it until the proper authorities could be called to the scene.
Quality Well Service of Lyons was called to the scene and arrived the next day. When workers looked into the hole, they found that it mushroomed out as it went down to a depth of about 10 feet.
However, at the bottom of the larger hole was a smaller well hole which went down another 50 feet.
Using water from old school cisterns, the outfit placed a 72' casing down the hole. They then secured the pipe by pouring cement down around the outside.
Drillers were expected to be back yesterday, Tuesday, to drill down through the casing to determine whether the well was a water well or oil well.
Old timers who were around during the boom years of the 1920s, when Lost Springs was covered with numerous oil derricks, recalled an oil rig at the spot where the hole opened.
Others recalled that in one hole drilled in the area, a tool had broken off.
What drillers find will determine how the well will be plugged.
