East of Springfield, the countryside around Strafford, MO is where well drilling is needed, not the town itself. Strafford runs its own water system from three active city wells drilled 1,089 to 1,400 feet deep, so homes in town are on city water. The 65757 ZIP area held 7,962 people in 2020 against 2,561 in the city, and homes outside the city limits rely on private wells.
They are far shallower. Based on DNR well records through 2016, the median household well within 5 miles of Strafford is about 505 feet deep, while the city's own wells reach 1,089 to 1,400 feet. At that depth a typical home well sits right around the edge of the 200 to 500 foot band in WellDrillingCosts.com's published estimate of $10,000 to $34,000. Casing goes into solid rock first, then we drill on to water.
Here is how each of our services fits the countryside around Strafford.
Strafford's public works department runs three active wells and one inactive well, with three towers holding 500,000 gallons. Well 1 dates to 1967 and Wells 3 and 4 to 2005 and 2007. That system covers the city of 2,561 people, and the rest of the ZIP area pumps its own water.
The town sits high, at 1,490 feet. The Little Sac River begins as an intermittent stream just north of Strafford before flowing west into Fellows and McDaniel lakes, two of Springfield's water supply lakes, and Pierson Creek rises about 2 miles west of town. In the same DNR records, nearby household wells carry a median casing of about 147 feet.
In the same DNR records, about two in three household wells west of the Strafford town center went past 500 feet, against about two in five on the east side. Water stood deeper to the west too: about half of the west side wells reported a static level more than 200 feet down, compared with about one in four to the east.
Depth has crept up: about 7 in 10 of the nearby wells finished from 2007 through 2016 passed 500 feet, against about 4 in 10 from mid 1987 through 1996. Fewer than 1 in 100 nearby wells reported less than 20 gallons per minute, so depth and casing are the figures to watch when you budget.
Strafford itself lies in DNR Drilling Area 9, where casing is set 10 feet or more below the Ozark Confining Unit, a low-permeability layer that generally keeps water in the upper aquifer from moving down into the lower one. DNR's minimum for the quarter section under the center of town is 160 feet, and within 5 miles the minimums run from 80 to 310 feet, higher to the south and west. The Webster County land east of town follows Area 1, with an 80 foot floor. Area 9 also allows a casing point request to DNR before drilling, and we can talk through whether one makes sense for your lot.
DNR's Missouri Geological Survey has classified about 19 miles of stream within 5 miles of Strafford as losing, about half of it on tributaries of Pierson Creek (Pearson Creek on DNR's map), plus stretches of Broad Creek and Davis Creek. A losing stream sends at least 30 percent of its flow into a bedrock aquifer in dry weather, DNR says, so whatever it carries has a better chance of reaching groundwater.
To test a well at the Springfield-Greene County Health Department lab:
Call us after a positive result and we'll check the cap, casing and seal.
I-44 exit 88 (MO 125) is signed for Strafford and Fair Grove, and MO 125 runs north to Fair Grove and south to Rogersville. Historic Route 66 shared part of MO 125 and passed through Strafford between the businesses and the railroad, and former US 66, now Route OO, passes Red Top about 6 miles northeast.
Local landmarks include Delp Historic Route 66 Park and the Trail of Tears Roadbed Segment on Josiah Danforth Farm, listed on the National Register in the Strafford vicinity.
Call (417) 929-5558 - Mon-Sat 7AM-7PM. Free quotes available.