history

When the State Hospital as constructed an independent water system was built to supply water to the institution.
Well No. 1 of the State Hospital had a dept of 1070 feet. The curb was 1, 338 feet above sea level with the water level in the well 150 feet below that. The tested capacity of the wall was sixty gallons a minute or 50,400 gallons per day. This well was completed in 1902. A few months later Well No. 2 was drilled about 80 feet from Well No. 1, this well had a depth of 343 feet and a diameter of 12 inches. The maximum daily yield of water was reported to be 125,000 gallons per day. The water from Well No. 2 was said to be much better than that in Well No. 1 but it contained sediments that varied greatly in amount from time to time. One day it would be so clear that it could be used without trouble and the net day so filled with silt as to wear out the pump leathers and fill the flush tanks with silt. Sometimes it would take a week or two of pumping to clear it.
The main building itself had 10,000 feet of water pipe, 13, 940 feet of sewer pipe, and 30,000 feet of steam pipe.
The water from the wells as pumped into a number of large cisterns and thence to a water tower on the grounds for delivery to the wards and kitchen through the miles of pipe within and leading to the buildings on the grounds. The hospital had its own sewage treatment plant on the south side of the main campus near the service road.
In 1973 the water system including the wells located on east Cherry Street were merged with the Cherokee Municipal Water System.
A main feeder sewage line was laid from the institution to the new Cherokee sewage disposal plant on the River Road and the old sewage plant on the hospital grounds ceased operation though it was not demolished.
The water tower on the grounds remains in use and the Mental Health Institute maintains its own internal plumbing system.
(Source: Cherokee County Historical Society Newsletter, Special August - September Issue, Vol. 12, No. 7, 1977, pg. 12)