Material evidence of folk hydrology in rural Canada: The well auger and dowsing rods of Hamilton “Ham” Brereton

Abstract

An unusual well-boring apparatus and a selection of dowsing rods that once belonged to Hamilton “Ham” Brereton (1917–1992) of Navan, Ontario, Canada, are preserved in the collection of the City of Ottawa Museums. These artifacts are important material evidence of popular experiences and understandings of groundwater hydrology in one rural Canadian region during the early- and mid-twentieth century. Brereton’s dowsing practice demonstrates his adaptation of well-documented dowsers’ lore and underlines the importance of dowsing as a “ritual response” to groundwater uncertainty. Similarly, in designing and operating a well auger, Brereton and his father, both blacksmiths, carefully considered local geological and hydrological conditions and challenges; like other North American well auger inventors, they produced a tool that was singularly well suited to boring in local overburden. Drawing upon family recollections, hydrological and folklore studies, patents of invention, practices in other regions, and the artifacts themselves, this article demonstrates that close attention to such material evidence can reveal important details about “folk hydrology,” that is, understandings of groundwater behaviour and strategies for groundwater exploitation that are grounded in experience and attachment to place.