Layton’s first deep artesian well sunk in 1887

                                A modern Layton City watertank below Highway 89 today.

THE first successful deep artesian well was dug in Layton in 1887.

According to the Deseret News of May 4, 1887, Philo Dibble of Layton spent $200 in labor and materials sinking a 383-foot well that he believes is one of the deepest in the nation.

Dibble reported having to go through a layer of sand, some 300 feet thick, in order to eventually access an underground stream of water that delivers a flow of 30 gallons per minute.

The newspaper account states that the well was 3 ½ miles from the Great Salt Lake, so it was in today’s western section of Layton.

The milestone well was reported to be free from any Sulphur taste, common in most Davis County wells.

Dibble displayed “indomitable grit” in working to create the well.

The Deseret News story also reported that the new Davis and Weber Canal is now spreading over the area, with new irrigation options for what was once called “the range.”
(How deep are Layton's more modern wells? The Greenleaf well, located just north of the Union Pacific railroad tracks on Gordon Avenue, is about 550 feet deep. It was drilled in about 1990.)

-Since 19^th Century Layton residents struggled to keep food cold in the summer, a company out of Evanston, Wyoming – Walsh & Talbott Company, preserved ice in the winter of 1878-1879 to sell in Layton and throughout Northern Utah.

This ice, according to the Salt Lake Tribune of Feb. 9, 1879, was transported by the Union and Central Pacific railroads to the Wasatch Front.

           Eventually Layton Cold Storage opened on West Gentile Street, giving residents cold storage.