"The Stump" -- North Ogden's artesian well that flows with history

By Lynn Arave

  
This artesian well at the top of Washington Boulevard, east of Lee's Marketplace and north of McDonald's Restaurant at 2650 North, is flowing out of a "tree" stump, thanks to a restoration project by the City Council and a local Boy Scout.
   Clarence Barker drilled the artesian well in 1930 for irrigation water. Then, in the summer of 1931, "The Stump" came along. Joe Ballif — who had a hamburger stand near the well at 2620 N. 390 East and who was already using some of the water for his business — decided to capitalize on the refreshing liquid.
   Ballif obtained a cottonwood tree stump from Frank Campbell's front yard, 2594 N. 400 East (where First Security Bank is now), to spruce up the well. However, this wasn't just any tree. It was what was left of the original and lone tree standing in the area when pioneers arrived in North Ogden during the 1850s. The upper part of the tree had been destroyed by lightning, and Ballif salvaged the stump. It took four horses to haul it to the well a short distance away.
   Dewey Lakey, a traveling craftsman, was called in and he cut and chiseled the stump so it could contain a fountain and a yellow light bulb. The water began flowing through the stump, and a nearby sign stated, "Good water, isn't it? Try our hamburgers," as an advertisement for Ballif's food outlet.
   In later years, the tree stump deteriorated and much of it rotted away. Ballif's stand also went out of business. A steel ring and concrete were added, probably in the 1960s, to shore up the stump — though this meant it lost its treelike appearance.

   The well had developed the strange nickname of "Frogwater" by the 1950s.
According to Charles "Chick" Hislop, former Weber State University track and cross country coach, that name took hold in the mid-1950s, back when there was an actual tree stump where the artesian well water emerged from. Hislop said he and college kids often frequented the well. Back then it was a swamp all over the area, as well as a lot of noisy frogs around. Hislop recalled during an interview in 2017 about the well's nickname that as most enjoyed the mineral taste of the water, one college girl didn't and said "I'm not drinking that frogwater."
The name took hold.
The well was a landmark throughout Weber County. In fact, Coach Chick Hislop started having his athletes run to the fountain, exactly 10 miles from WSU, beginning in about 1969 for some of their "overdistance" training sessions. The runners could always count on having a refreshing drink of water at the "Frogwater" run's end.
Hislop said by then the stump had rotted away and there was cement around the fountain.
He had also directed his prep runners in the mid-1960s run to the fountain when earlier he had been a coach at Ben Lomond High School today, the distance being 5 miles from school to fountain. 

The "Frogwater" "Stump" as it appeared in the mid-1970s -- a crumbling concrete mass.



However, the establishment of Acres Market (forerunner to today's grocery store there) in 1999 meant the fountain would be removed. Marc M. Sutherland decided to create a plaque on the well's history as his Eagle Scout project. With historical interest stirred, the City Council became involved and had a 10-foot-high fiberglass replica of the tree stump made and placed near the original well. It was dedicated on May 20, 2000 in a special ceremony attended by some 200 people.
   Now the new "Stump" boasts two drinking fountains on its south side and a large flowing pipe on its north face. Gallon bottles can be filled up in seconds.

   "It's better than tap water," North Ogden resident Mike Barrow said as he filled up more than a dozen jugs of the water. "My whole family drinks it. I guess I should bring some larger jugs."
   Barrow said the water has been tested for quality and is better than the city of North Ogden's culinary water, though not bottled water sold in stores.,
   Thirsty kids on bikes or skateboards regularly stop at the fountain for drinks too. State Sen. Robert Montgomery, R-North Ogden, said at the fountain's dedication he recalls stopping there frequently as a child for a cold drink, too. Area residents regularly fill up jugs of water here and it is free.

There's even a nearby Veteran's Park, benches and mini park in the area now. North Ogden City even has a Christmas Santa house on the site.

(-Written by Lynn Arave and originally published in the Deseret News.)

Salt Lake City has it own artesian well counterpart to this, located at the southwest corner of 800 South and 500 East, water flowing  24/7 and free too. You just drive up on the south side of 800 South heading east and park and get out and fill up your containers. Below are photos of the Salt Lake public well .... water trickles down from a decorative arch.

North Ogden Divide Road in 1914

      The view below North Ogden Divide. The road is on the north side of the canyon.


THE North Ogden, Utah Divide Road has been around for more than a century.
In a Sept. 11, 1914 report in the Ogden Standard-Examiner, Weber County Commissioners traveled by automobile over the North Ogden Divide, also called "North Ogden Canyon Road" in those days.
Their report was a "fairly good" road, though "pretty steep," with a "most pleasing" high point.
Even today this road, about seven miles south of the main route through Ogden Canyon (Utah Highway 39), is a shortcut to Eden and Liberty in Ogden Valley,.

When Garner Cave was first explored by Boy Scouts

                      Coldwater Canyon, as viewed from the northwest in North Ogden.

“BOYS explore huge cavern. Scouts of Troop 20 visit little known cave near Ogden Canyon” was an August 22, 1922 headline in the Ogden Standard-Examiner.

This was the first public look into what would eventually become known as “Garner Cave” in North Ogden.

Charles E. Fisk, scoutmaster of the troop, knew of the cave before and his troop’s visit there launched it into popularity. The troop used “electric searchlights” and candles to see inside the dark, natural treasure.

The story also stated that the scouts not only encountered numerous nests of hornets in the canyon, but also killed 10 rattlesnakes there.

“Ogden Cavern explored for long distance” was an Aug. 27, 1922 headline in the Standard.
 (This 1922 story also stated incorrectly that the Coldwater Canyon of North Ogden was also known as Garner Canyon. Coldwater and Garner are actually separate canyons, with One Horse Canyon found in between the two.)
 That “that cave will become one of the popular attractions of Ogden” was highlighted in the story.

A few weeks later, Boy Scout Troop 5, from St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, also visited the cave.

Sadly, vandalism has since destroyed all the formations on the inside of the cave, but visits are still made to this cave today.

Scoutmaster Fisk took his troop on many local adventures. In the Oct.23, 1922 Standard, it was reported: “Endurance hike made by scouts” of Troop No. 20. Two dozen boys hiked from the mouth of Wheeler Canyon to Mount Ogden and down into Ogden, a distance of 25 miles during a 13-hour hike.

Some of the scout’s trek was reported to be off trail and over steep ledges.

“Great numbers of blue grouse and willow grouse were seen and the track of a timber wolf was seen in various places,” the story stated.

The boys encountered two inches of snow on the north slope of the mountain and also hiked through a small snowstorm that “gave the boys great glee.”

-The Standard of Sept. 17, 1953 also mentioned a separate cavern, Eagle Cave, east of 22^nd Street.

“Several youngsters have been killed or seriously injured in recent years trying to reach the cave,” the report stated.

Attempts to use dynamite to close the dangerous cave had failed, so scouts mobilized and created stairs to the cave’s entrance to at least make it safer.

(-Originally published in the Ogden Standard-Examiner on-line and in print on January 8-9, 2015, by Lynn Arave.)

-NOTE: The author, Lynn Arave, is available to speak to groups, clubs, classes or other organizations about Utah history at no charge. He can be contacted by email at: lynnarave@comcast.net