I put this on the Good Old Days because I doubt if too many people have tried it lately.
Scientists don't have much good to say about it.
Has anyone on this forum ever seen a water dowser find water?
Yes. Twice.
Once when we lived over by Sycamore, north of Independence. We had had reports of an old well on our property, but no sign of it existed. Someone came out and located the well. The sides, etc., were all still there, with about three feet of dirt on top. We didn't use the well, just built a top for it.
We've also used one on our property here in Howard - to find out water line to the road. We had a leak, the city dug up the area where the map said the pipe was. It wasn't. Instead of digging up the entire yard, we had it witched and found the leak. Easy fix after all.
My old classmate, master plumber, could find any sewer or water line by witching. I tried it and wasn't quite as accurate as he was. It was quite interesting to see the rods line up with the pipeline. The witching for a well was not quite as accurate, depending on the depth of the water. One old well driller could tell you how deep it was.In that instance the rods bent down to the ground.
Some of the old timers said that Elias Morgan was the best water witcher in the area. I'll ask his son Curtis about that next time I see him.