When Bob Chrisman was a young man and needed to dig a well on his rural Bloomington property, he cut a forked branch and witched for water.

“You take a peach limb and you walk slow,” said Chrisman, 83. “If there’s a vein of water there on the lot, it points right straight down. I took a postal auger and went right down ... and I saw one vein going one way and one vein that’s going the next way, and I hit right down in the center of them.”

Chrisman, who lives at Arden Courts in Geneva, recounted details of his strange but useful gift that is known by various names: water witching, dowsing, divining or doodlebugging.

“Not everybody can witch a well,” Chrisman said. “It’s a gift.”

Indeed. Chrisman’s daughter, Carol McIntyre of St. Charles, said she couldn’t explain it, but she remembered when her father found water on a neighbor’s property after his well went dry and they sunk three dry holes.

Atala Dorothy Toy demonstrates the use of dowsing rods. The use of dowsing rods has long been an ancient art for locating water. (H. Rick Bamman photo)

“On that fourth try, they went down 35 feet and got water,” she said.

Dowsing for water is an practice that dates back thousands of years said Atala Dorothy Toy of St. Charles, who sells brass dowsing rods at her store, Crystal Life in St. Charles.

“It goes back into ancient history,” Toy said. “On the walls of pyramids and temples, there are pictures of priests using dowsing tools and pendulums.”

Toy is Vice President of the American Society of Dowsers, Great Lakes Region, an organization with about 2,000 members. Dowsers also use the tools to look for gold and minerals, she said.

The theory of why it works is the objects sought – water, gold, minerals – have energy that the attracts to the energy of the dowsing tools, she said.

While many rural communities still rely on divining to find water, scientists do not endorse its practice.

“The conclusions of controlled experiments showed there was no scientific evidence to support it,” said Cliff Treyens, spokesman for the National Ground Water Association. The nonprofit organization of scientists, engineers and contractors provides guidance for protection and management of water resources. Scientists find water by charting geological formations – not by dowsing.

“Most people don’t realize that groundwater is very pervasive and you can go just about anywhere, dig deep enough, and you’ll hit an aquifer,” Treyens said.

But John Pitz of Batavia takes a more measured view. Pitz is a well-digger since his father started NL Pitz Inc. in Batavia in the 1940s.

“I’ve seen it work and I’ve seen it fail,” Pitz said. “I’m not going to say it’s right, I’m not going to say it’s wrong. But how do you explain when it works? When a guy walks across drain tiles and it moves? I’ve seen people take two copper wires, bend them into an L-shape, and walk, and as they walk past drain tile, I’ve seen it turn.”

Take Charles Hughes, an employee with the Lapeer County Health Department in Michigan, who has used dowsing to find underground utilities for 30 years. He uses it to track septic systems and utilities so private wells can be safely dug.

“I use a very exclusive metal – a coat hanger,” Hughes said. “I break it in half so I have two L-shapes. I make a circle with my thumbs and forefingers and the L-shape sits in them. And when I walk over something, the two cross.”