St. Joseph water dowser practices ancient art for 55 years and counting

Maury's Stories: Water dowser has done ancient art for decades

Jim Kuebelbeck, 86, practices the ancient art of of water dowser, which is basically a sixth sense of finding underground water.

ST. JOSEPH, Minn. (FOX 9) - In some rural communities, digging a well for water can be a difficult proposition, but Jim Kuebelbeck is proud of his talent for helping his neighbors in need.

‘It’s something I sense inside'

What we know:

In a field on the outskirts of St. Joseph, Minnesota, Jim Kuebelbeck is a man on a mission. Several times a month, he and wife Carol visit properties across the Midwest to see if they can get into the flow of things.

"I guess we're all born with different talents and abilities," said Kuebelbeck.

For 55 years, Kuebelbeck has been a professional water dowser, who he says has found more than 3300 successful sites to dig wells.

"It's an ancient faculty. There's cave drawings in France, thousands of years old, that depict a person walking around with a device of some sort and locating underground water or sensing different things beneath the surface," said Kuebelbeck.

Even though he carries plastic divining rods, he says they're just props that help him concentrate on finding water beneath the surface of the earth.

"It feels like a kind of an apprehensive feeling. That combination of concentrating on underground water flows would trigger a neuromuscular reaction in my body. It's kind of a strange, unexplainable human faculty. and a lot of people that don't have that faculty, they tend to discredit it or ridicule it," said Kuebelbeck.

‘Our successes speak for itself’

The backstory:

As a teenager, Kuebelbeck says he started out as a skeptic of a priest from St Johns University, Fr. Elmer Eisenshenk, who was known in the community for his ability to find water.

But after Kuebelbeck helped a relative locate the right spot to drill a well on their property, he became a convert and the calls have been coming in ever since.

"Ranchers, farmers, big operations, dairy farms, big operations, small operations, all walks of life," said Kuebelbeck.

The 86-year-old helped find future water supplies for the world's largest mountain carving, the Crazy Horse Memorial, near Custer, South Dakota nearly 20 years ago.

And despite the fact studies show dowsing is no better at finding water than random chance, Kuebelbeck says his skills are constantly in demand.

"The only basis we have is success and credibility. How or why I'm able to do this, I don't have the answers yet. Maybe I'll have them someday, but I'm not ready for that yet," said Kuebelbeck.