Big Well (Kansas)

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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.[1] It was built in 1887 at a cost of $45,000, and served as the municipal water supply until 1932.[1]

Big Well visitor center. Well entrance is the gray structure under the portico. Visitor center destroyed by tornado on 4 May 2007.
Big Well visitor center. Well entrance is the gray structure under the portico. Visitor center destroyed by tornado on 4 May 2007.

It is billed as the world's largest hand-dug well, at 109 feet deep and 32 feet in diameter.[2] 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).[3]

It was designated a National Museum in 1972;[4] in 1973 it was awarded an American Water Landmark by the American Water Works Association.[5]

Visitors entered the well for a small fee, descending an illuminated stairway to the bottom of the well.[1]

[edit] 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.[6]


The visitor's center also displayed a 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,[7] but that title is held by other samples. It was reported that the Big Well visitor center was destroyed, and the meteorite was missing [8] 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. [9]

[edit] References and footnotes

  1. ^ a b c Big Well official homepage
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ St. Patrick's Well
  4. ^ Big Well on World's Largest Things
  5. ^ Water Landmarks from the website of the American Water Works Association
  6. ^ Evidence of the destruction is based on a Wichita Eagle/Associated Press photo published here on and hosted by CNN
  7. ^ Big Well Booklet, Chamber of Commerce, Greensburg, Kansas, written 1987, viewed 6 May 2007.
  8. ^ Greensburg loses unique town treasure too
  9. ^ Greensburg's famed meteorite found under rubble
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