The Caledonian-Record Online Edition   ·   Thursday June 8, 2006
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Mysterious Hole In Back Yard Perplexes Wells River Resident
BY JACOB L. GRANT Staff Writer

WELLS RIVER, VT - Could it have been a washout? Kids fooling around? An
old septic system? Aliens?

Adele Howarth of New Jersey wasn't sure what to think when she returned
to her summer home in Wells River Village to find what appeared to be a
large sinkhole in her back yard, less than 10 feet from her house.

Admittedly scared to go near it and concerned the 6-foot-deep hole might
widen and swallow her house, she started calling village officials to
find out what to do.
"Nobody seems to know anything about it," said Howarth. "I live here
alone. I'm a widow. I'm frightened."
The hole was discovered by Howarth's friend Albert Kree, also of New
Jersey, who had driven Howarth to her home in Wells River for the
summer. Kree had been mowing the lawn when he almost drove the mower
into the hole.
"Everyone's been looking at it and no one knows what it is," Kree said.

As scary and unexplainable as the mystery seems to be, town officials
say they are not as perplexed.
"What it looks like to me is an old septic system," said Village Trustee
Anne Tyler.
She said it looked like the old septic system had just given out.
Joe Provost, the water and sewer foreman, agreed. After looking at the
property he said he couldn't find where the dirt had come out so it
wasn't really a washout. He said all the dirt just fell straight down
into the earth.
"I think it found its way into her old septic system," he said.

According to Howard Reed of the Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury, a
sinkhole usually occurs in areas where there is a specific type of
limestone that dissolves easily as ground water circulates through it.
However that type of limestone is not common to this area, he said.
Still, sinkholes can and do form around here, he said, usually when lots
of water creates a sort of cave under the ground. With no support, the
surface falls in.
However, there is no running water on or near Howarth's property, and
Howarth insisted that her old septic system is nowhere near the
"sinkhole."
A natural formation, or a freak of nature? The village of Wells River
may never know.
The solution to Howarth's problem maybe a simple one though.
"Fill it in," Provost said.

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