I Discovered an Artesian Well

I recently purchased a piece of property and discovered an artesian well.

Apparently the well was at one time attached to a pump. When the house was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and the property left vacant, back in 2005, the well was not flowing. Sometime between now and then the pipe started flowing again. I know of at least two other similar situations on nearby abandoned properties. Since I purchased this one, I'm considering what to do with it.

A tree has grown up around the pipe and its just sticking out of a trunck. Its actually kind of funny. My son calls it "my Dad's Magic Tree." Fortunately the pipe inside the tree is metal and the PVC in the picture just screwed off.

My main question is: If I cap this, or install a spigot, will it lose its prime and stop flowing?

I'm going to get the water tested.

And now I'm brainstorming on what to do with this wonderful free water resource. Its on about 1 1/2 acres of un kept land. I am considering clearing the land and establishing a garden or food forest there. Its an off-grid situation. The ground is flat.  I'm in zone 9 on the Mississippi gulf coast (USA). What would you do?

#1: Get your water tested,
#2: Consider yourself lucky to have a free flowing water source,
#3: Not flowing/flowing/not flowing, underground veins are unpredictable. Many things (crawdads come to mind) can change the course of flow. Don't rely on it, just capture what you can and use it.

I can't tell from the picture but are those Mayfly larvae on the PVC?

Don Elbourne wrote:
My main question is: If I cap this, or install a spigot, will it lose its prime and stop flowing?

No, flowing artesian wells will not stop flowing from being capped.  They do stop flowing from lower hydraulic head in the aquifer usually caused by lower recharge into the aquifer or increased withdrawals from the aquifer.  If you put a pressure gauge on the capped well you can see how much the head changes over time.

Thanks Ardilla. I never would have thought to put a pressure gage on it. Very cool idea.

I was worried that it would lose its prime, so I hooked a 100' garden hose to it and ran it out to the ditch. lol