Dowsing, also known as “water witching”, has taken place in Vermont since the 1700s. In 1799, a stranger named Winchell arrived in Middletown, VT. He was wanted for counterfeiting in Orange County and was an infamous con-man. He was also a “dowser” who convinced the local populace that he could find hidden treasures and the like. He met another man named Nathaniel Wood, who had started his own religious cult. Influenced by Winchell, Wood soon incorporated the dowser’s “divining rod” into his home-grown religious activities. Wood and his followers became known as “rodsmen” and were using their dowsing techniques to look for treasure buried by pirates, fortune telling and divine revelation. Winchell also met and influenced nearby Poultney resident, Joseph Smith (founder of the Mormon faith) to take an interest in dowsing.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe to our email list for the latest news!
Although the original interest in dowsing was for such outlandish purposes as seeking buried treasures, it continued on over the years and prompted the change to divining for underground water sources. In 1960, Danville, Vermont became the birthplace of the American Society of Dowsers.
In 2004, 80 year old Edith Greene became a town hero to the people of Montgomery, VT. Her dowsing talents produced all the clean, fresh drinking water they could ever want. She used her own favorite rods are made of faux-copper wire with molded-plastic handles, purchased rom a New Hampshire dowser. All morning, Edith watched her rods swing wide, again and again. The day progressed and the wind picked up. Something odd, but intriguing was happening below, but she wasn’t sure what. The day finished, she marked out the place where she believed the water source was. Early the following Wednesday, when the huge drilling rig arrived but there was no one to explain to the drill operator that Edith’s markers were not her final recommendations. When he searched for a dowser’s usual flagged stakes, he noticed a piece of orange tape tied to a tree branch at the field’s edge. He quickly went to work. And then, without warning, a geyser shot upward and splashed the orange surveyor’s tape. He struggled to contain the torrent with a bucket. Water was gushing forth at over 300 gallons a minute, easy, he estimated. Three times as much as they needed. This was the best news Montgomery had had in a long time.
