A Professional ‘Water Witch’ Explains How to Find Water in a Drought

by Jason Koebler

March 3, 2014 // 03:10 PM EST – As the East Coast continues to get snow dumped on it, California’s record-setting drought drags on. It’s gotten so bad that farmers in the state have called upon “dowsers,” a group of people who have the ability to find water using their intuition and a series of tools with names like L and Y rods, pendulums, and bobbers. Some people have taken to calling them “water witches,” and some claim they can find underground water just by looking at a map of a plot of land. (Reportedly, it’s tougher than just pointing at the blue parts.)

The practice has become so ingrained in agriculture that in 1988, the United States Geological Survey released a report mostly dismissing the practice.   Read more …