Creative Speculation

Caption Dowsing. Historical photograph of a group of diviners with a variety of objects used for detecting underground water ("dowsing&quot . The divining (meaning "finding&quot objects are (from left to right): a whale bone rod, a pendulum suspended from a rod, a watch on a pendulum, another watch on a pendulum and a split cane rod. The rods are held loosely in the practitioner's hands and spontaneously point upwards or downwards when he passes over an underground object such as a spring. The pendulums rotate when over an underground object. Although still widely used, divining has no scientific basis and there is no conclusive evidence that it works.
http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/231783/enlarge
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My father-in-law called it “water witching,” and in 1979 he insisted on “witching” water for Mr. froggy and me so we’d know where to dig our well. He found water, but we knew he’d have found it just about anywhere. There were surface springs all over the place on our land. His witching tool was a bent wire clothes hanger, and the shape of it resembled the object on the far right in the above picture.

A friend of his who was also a water witcher came with him. His witching tool was made out of crazily bent wire antennas fixed to a Gabby Hayes-style cowboy hat (see pic below). I still laugh when I think of him looking so earnest while wearing that goofy contraption on his head.