Artesian Well Park

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Geology, historic, Parks, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, utah, Wells

Artesian Well Park in Salt Lake City is a small urban park that contains a natural artesian spring fed by an underground aquifer. It occupies a quarter acre on the southwest corner of the intersection between 800 South and 500 East. People from all over the surrounding area have been coming to get water for free from this spring for over 100 years.

Salt Lake Parks

April 2020 – They are renovating the park.

While pulling granite from a quarry in Little Cottonwood Canyon, early Mormon settlers and their oxen stopped on this site to imbibe the refreshing water.

The settlers have long since passed, but the temple still stands, the water still runs, and the settlers’ offspring – and many others – still linger here to rest and refresh themselves.

This is an artesian well. Artesian water is water held in a porous rock layer, under a small amount of pressure, between two solid rock layers. An artesian well is different from an artesian spring in that its water doesn’t surface through a natural opening; instead, a pipe must be put into the ground. The fact that the water flows through the pipe, under natural pressure, without pumping, makes artesian well different from other wells.

This artesian well taps into an aquifer whose recharge area extends from Red Butte Creek underneath the University of Utah. Much of the allure of this site is its natural water with high mineral content and few chemicals.