ELLENSBURG – Babs Ballard has talked to many a dowser over the years and has given up wanting to know why the downward twitching of a willow branch often is a sign there’s water in the ground under your feet.

“So many people each have their own theory,” said Ballard, 70, who lives on Hidden Valley Road 10 miles east of Cle Elum. “I’ve read about it, researched it, gone on the Internet, taken college classes and talked to a lot of dowsers.

“I’ve decided I’m not going to worry about it. I just know, for me, it works most of the time.”

She’s talking about holding a freshly cut, forked willow branch as she walks over someone’s property in search of water, specifically, an underground aquifer into which to drill a well. The branch is usually 16 to 18 inches long.

She gently holds the two prongs of the branch, one fork in each hand, and feels for a slight dipping or bowing of the single, extended branch. That dipping, to her, signals there’s water down there.

“I don’t do it very often anymore,” Ballard said last week. “I’ve been declining a lot of requests. When I do help someone out, well, I try very hard to explain that it’s not guaranteed. But it’s been pretty successful for me in finding a place for a well.”

Ballard began dowsing, also called water witching by some, in 1972 when seeking to put in a well. She lives on part of the original Ballard family homestead that was established in 1893. When she was a youngster, her father told her about dowsing, and one of her grandfathers was a well-driller in Moxee.

Five different dowsers were called in to help with the well. One was a friend from Graham.

“I was watching her and she turned to me and said, ‘Here, you do it’ and handed it to me. It was a lot of fun.”

She decided to try practicing the skill. She went to properties with already-dug wells, talked to other dowsers and took geology classes at Central Washington University.

Her most steady dowsing work was between the late 1970s to the early 1980s in Upper County. She’s now retired from driving buses for the Cle Elum-Roslyn School District.

There’s been a few times when her dowsing was inconclusive, or when the amount of water found was small.

“I’m up front with people right at the start; sometimes it doesn’t work.”

Ballard also uses two 16-inch wires bent in an L-shape on one end to confirm what she gets from the willow branch. She holds one wire in each extended hand with each wire pointing down.

When the downward pointing wires slowly cross as she walks over the ground, Ballard believes they have detected water.

There’s others in the local community who believe, too.

Bill and Sue Essex, who live down the road from Ballard, heard about her abilities and asked for her help in 1997 when they were building their first home. Sue grew up on nearby Ley Road, was gone for many years, and then returned to the area to become a permanent resident.

“She found really wonderful water, and in good quantities,” Sue said. “Babs is extremely talented and a wonderful neighbor and friend. It’s just amazing to watch her work.”

The couple sold their first home and built their second home nearby. Again, they called on Ballard for help.

“We never in the world would have found the water on our own that she found for us,” Sue said. “Her gift is invaluable.”

She said the practice of dowsing goes back many, many years and was used in pioneer days when there were no computers and scientific data available on finding water.

“There is still value in many of those old ways of doing things,” Sue said. “Some of the old ways are good; they work.”

Franki Storli of Ellensburg said she dabbles in dowsing, mostly for personal uses and helping friends. She uses wires and also uses a pendulum system, involving holding a crystal or wooden object on the end of a short chain and swinging it in a circle. She watches for changes in the motion.

“I think it’s a very valuable tool,” Storli said. “It’s costly to drill a well. It certainly is good to decide on a location based on geography and geology and then back it up with dowsing. It’s good to get all the help you can.”

Well-driller Mike Morefield said he learned dowsing from his late father and has been drilling for 21 years. He acknowledged that he doesn’t use dowsing in connection with any well job or client. He only does it as a service to friends needing help.

Morefield uses small, bent metal rods the same way Ballard does. Most of the dowsing is done in Upper County, he said.

“I watched my dad do it for many years,” Morefield said. “He was pretty accurate. I’d say for me it works about 99 percent of the time.”