19th century well found at Cregger Center construction site (updated w/video)

As construction crews were grading the sight for the indoor track area of Roanoke College's new Cregger Center in late April, they uncovered a 19th century water well. Branch & Associates subcontractor E.C. Pace ran across a section of concrete with their heavy equipment and when they removed the concrete, they found it had been used to cover an old well.

The well, which is now dry, has some impressive stats for one that was dug by hand. It is 4 feet in diameter and 33.5 feet deep. It was lined with stones; no mortar was used.

Dr. Mark Miller, the David F. Bittle College Historian and professor of history and geography, visited the construction site with Tom Klatka, a state archaeologist with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Klatka estimates that the well dates back to the mid-1800s. He says it's quite large for a residential well so it may have served a larger purpose.

For a time the well was blocked off for safety reasons. Construction continued around it while architects and engineers evaluated the area.

President Michael Maxey had hoped to save some of the well or at least the top layer of stones lining the well to use for a possible exhibit.

"A couple of things are working against us," Miller said. "The state archeologist has declared the well site itself unsafe and the well unstable -- two tough blows to overcome. Even more difficult is the fact that the well is exactly along the outside structural wall of the indoor track building. Any removal of stones or further investigation was ruled too dangerous. So we recorded the site, took pictures and noted it on a survey map."

The well is being filled with concrete so crews can move forward with construction.

Before the well was filled, Mike Vaught, Roanoke's manager of plant operations, managed to capture a video from inside the well. Vaught, with the help of some of the construction crew, put a 10 foot pipe across the well site, then tied a long string to his cell phone and wrapped it around the pipe. He then set his camera to record and started to unroll the string from the pipe which lowered the camera down into the well. Amazingly, when the camera phone hit the bottom of the 33 foot well, it pointed up and you can see the sun streaming into the well. Then, Vaught began to roll the string back around the pipe and the camera rises back to the surface.