Radio Curious visits with Rob Schroeder, a water well driller and dowser, as he hunts for water in the northern California mountains. Dowsing is an ancient technique of finding water with a stick. Schroeder talks about what dowsing is, how you do it and why he thinks it works.
Barry Vogel, Attorney and Counselor is the Host and Producer of Radio Curious. Christina Aanestad is the Assistant Producer.
Finding water on a ridge top, as in where is a good place to drill and how deep will it be before thereâs good water, is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious.  Our guest is Rob Schroeder, a water well driller based in Ukiah, California and employed by Weeks Drilling of Sebastopol, California.  Rob Schroeder says heâs also and amateur dowser. Thatâs a person who tries to locate a good spot from which to drill for water by using a divining rod, which is a bent metal rod or a forked branch from a tree. Rob and I walked in the redwood forest on a ridge top about half way between Ukiah, California and the coastal village of Mendocino, a distance apart as the crow flies of about 35 miles.  In addition to the divining rod, he looked for certain trees and other signs indicating that a vein of water could be near. Youâll sometimes hear the crunch of leaves as we walked among the trees on November 10, 2013.  We begin with Rod Schroederâs description of the divining rod that he uses, how to use it and a guess as to why it works.   The book Rob Schroeder recommends is âWhere White Men Fear to Tread: The Autobiography of Russell Means,â by Russell Means and Marvin Wolf.
Radio Curious is a half-hour, weekly, long-form interview program, now in it's 23rd year. We interview people on a curiously wide variety of topics about life and ideas. Our website is www.radiocurious.org. If your station airs Radio Curious please let us know curious@radiocurious.org, we will add you to our list of syndicate stations. We also welcome questions, feedback and program ideas. Radio Curious 280 N. Oak St. Ukiah, Ca 95482. (707) 462-6541.