In the film about Williamsburg, VA development I once saw at an alternative school for elementary children, as part of an archaeology section I was hired a day for, they used a corrugated pipe, one usually used in drainage under roads, inserted into the well diameter, to protect the excavator. The film was shown outdoors at the Brazilian George Washington's mansion, in Bellport, NY, he famous for successful marketing of instant coffee and a U.S. Federal lawsuit that reduced his branding of his products to "G. Washington". The kids had found a date of 1886(?) carved into the top of the wooden moulding over a door in the upstairs. They were having insulation blown into the walls, also once a sleep-away "Camp Rockaway" held by the Marist Catholic order.

At another well, it was excavated as it was constructed perhaps. At the sewerage treatment plant site on the former ferry landing across the Hudson River from Marlboro, NY, in that part of the property ceded by Bowdoin Park, which was once a summer residence of J.P. Morgan, the only Dutchess County park at the time, and in part, an early Dutch church cemetery, some of those disturbed, reburied by the Dutch Reformed church, and further defined, a large machine started at the top of the dry laid stone well and tried to leave it as a tower in the pit, as it had been filled with clean gravel from the adjoining Dutchess Quarry. An aluminum pitcher was recovered from the muck at the bottom after most of the stones were cleared, toppling over. In the reprint historic depictions, wells in sandy or loose soils were dug first as a big circular pit first and built up, filled, built up filled, etc. to the top.

The well at Fort McHenry was a domed construction using the then "latest mining technology" as requested, one did hope in the c. ~1811 (?) RFP. Inserted in the dome holes were some sort of brass pumps, pumping below the briny bay water held back by 10 foot long cast iron "tongue and groove" barrel like staves at 60-70 feet, pumped up from about a 90 foot brick wall depth. Fortunately, General George Armistead, had it dug before the famous/infamous British bombardment as it may have kept the fort and flag from burning. The national anthem of the U.S. commemorates the event. Water had been brought into what had been a marshy island over a small bridge by horse every day. When there in 1978 with the Denver Service Center of the NPS, Dept. of Interior, we removed some of the top fill, and some of the somewhat sunken interior fill, and I'm giving to understand, having left for grad school, a steel plate was placed over it to safeguard the public, as reported at a CNEHA meeting at the New Windsor Cantonment, near Newburgh, NY.

Some states are requiring the reporting and survey of wells in the transfer of properties as a resource for further regulation.

A Canadian once remarked that I used to say "Well..." a lot and she'd say it's a hole in the ground with water in it, related to Samuel Morse I've since learned. We were in a small drought in Seal Cove, Grand Manan Island, N.B. where there's water water everywhere...