SPANISH FORK, Utah — Brian Terry has been making memories and finding pieces of history in his Spanish Fork home for 20 years.
"The house was originally built in 1890," Terry said. "We found underneath the house a trap door in the floor. We don't know what it was used for, but it goes from the living room down to the crawl space. We found some old Coke and Pepsi cans down under there."
Last Tuesday, Terry unexpectedly made his biggest discovery yet. At first, he just noticed his driveway cracking and sloping and attributed the damage to runoff under the sidewalk, but then he found more.
"I was driving over it and a big piece of it fell off. I was able to look down in the hole, and that was a pretty big hole," Terry said.
Terry determined that the 10-foot-deep hole engulfing his driveway was an old well.
"It's all lined with rock all the way down, that's how I was able to determine it was a well," Terry said. "It was suspected that maybe there had been one on the property, but we had no clue where it would've been."
Since finding the well, Terry and his son have filled about six feet, but there are still a couple of feet to go before it's completely filled. They will also need a professional to make sure it's secure and to rebuild the concrete. Terry says estimates for the repair are between $8,000-$15,000.
"More than likely the well had been filled up when it was no longer being used," Terry said. "Then at some point the driveway was done, and then over the years that just kind of settled, and that's what left a big void."
While Terry wishes he could keep the well — just like those vintage soda cans — it being in the middle of his driveway makes it a little inconvenient.
"It's a cool little old feature of history," he said. "It's just in a really bad spot."
