The Well Digger of Marah Springs

In 1947, a farmer named Harlan Briggs stood on forty acres of cracked Oklahoma dust. Three wells he had dug that summer — three wells that came up dry. His neighbors told him to sell. His banker told him to quit. His own wife wondered aloud at supper if maybe God had forgotten their little patch of earth. Harlan drove his shovel into the ground a fourth time.…