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Editor's note:This article is a part of a series reviewing Utah history for KSL.com's Historic section.SALT LAKE CITY — A small line begins to form at Artesian Well Park Monday evening. Some are armed with personal water bottles and others brought massive water jugs, and can you blame them?
It’s a little past 7 p.m. and it’s still in the low 90s outside. Beads of sweat are dripping off everyone’s foreheads and it’s clear this is well is a summer haven for those looking to hydrate.
“I’m a little cooler now,” an older man jokes as he takes a seat after a swig from his water bottle.
The park isn’t too large. It has a well with three spigots to allow people to access water. There’s also a bench about 10 feet away. It’s not really a park; rather, a teensy oasis on the corner of 800 South and 500 East for people seeking a natural water source a block from the vastly larger Liberty Park.
For years — actually, for more than a century even — people have used Salt Lake’s artesian well to grab water in the city. Unlike surrounding areas, the artesian spring is not a part of the city’s drinking water system.
It was first used as a livestock waterhole in the area and was even used to water down oxen that went back and forth to haul granite for the Salt Lake Temple project, according to a 2005 article in the Deseret News.
It’s also one of a couple natural springs in the area that once served as farmland for Mormon settlers in the mid-1850s. For example, Tracy Aviary president and CEO Tim Brown noted the aviary, which is about four blocks south of Artesian Well Park, also sits on natural springs.
The city was an agriculture hub from the mid-1850s until the early 20th century. City residents had gardens and raised livestock, like cows, during that time, according to Utah History Encyclopedia.
"In many ways, Salt Lake City epitomized a continuing split in Utah's personality," the outlet wrote. "It was very much part of America's urban surge, yet it remained a city the heart of which was committed to rural values and farm-based stability."
That changed in the 20th Century and Salt Lake City grew.
While the surrounding area changed from farming to housing over the decades, not much changed for the well until 1979, when the city invested close to $80,000 to spruce it up. That’s also when a brick case surrounding the well was added, as well as benches and it truly became a park.
And it’s been a popular watering hole the entire time. In fact, it’s even a preferred water source for some, who believe it’s the best water in town. There are dozens of glowing Google reviews that show that.
“This is the only place I get my water! I make the trek every week to refill all my containers,” one person wrote.
Another wrote it’s “always nice to have somewhere to go to get fresh water.”
It’s that sort of popularity that keeps people coming back to the well year after year.
