Nebraska’s Magic Man: Witching Water or Fabulous Fake? - FOX 42: Omaha News, Sports and Weather; kptm.com |

Nebraska’s Magic Man: Witching Water or Fabulous Fake?

Maureen Wurtz

GREELEY, Neb. (KPTM)- In a town with 562 people, and a few old crabs, lives Mike Goodrich.

"I'm just kind of the common Joe," chuckled Goodrich.

One thing not so common about Goodrich, his chosen profession, "I started doing this in 1961," said Goodrich.

Goodrich is a ‘Master Dowser' or a ‘Well Witcher.'  Goodrich uses a variety of tools to locate water underground

The practice of witching for water has been done for centuries, dating all the way back to the 1500s.

Some researchers even argue ‘witching for water' can be found in Biblical times, when Moses used a ‘rod' to locate water. 

Witchers use many different tools, the most commonly thought of, a ‘Y-stick,' or a Y shaped branch from a branch from any tree. "Y-stick, this is the once that everybody relates too."

Goodrich witches with anything, from pendulums to horse files. "You walk across a water line, that will actually point down and eventually just fall off your finger and drop right where the water line is, or a stream of water."

Out of all the things in Goodrich's crowded toolbox, he likes one the best. "These are my weapon of choice-I like the L-rods, they talk to me."

It's a two-way conversation, between Goodrich, and two metal L-shaped rods.

"It's from your third mind," explained Goodrich. "You got your conscious, your subconscious, and there's a divine conscious."

Through a unique process, Goodrich has witched hundreds of wells across Nebraska, and across the country.

He follows his divining rods to the deepest point of water on farmland. "I follow these-they're just like a bloodhound."

A dry summer meant a lot more work for Goodrich. "People are gonna find out, if they haven't found out already, that (water) is the next gold."

He said, he's not paid by the hour, but by the gallon. "The more you use it, the more confident you get."

One nearby farmer has all the confidence in Goodrich. "Mike's the type of guy, he likes a nonbeliever," said Jordan Foltz. "He'll make a believer out of you when he puts the rods in your hands."

Foltz was having a tough summer, and one of his wells ran dry. That's when he called Goodrich to find him a new well. "Economy's going bad, and you need more out of your ground, so we had him come and dome some witching on this well," said Foltz.

Goodrich found a well, just 50 feet away from Foltz's dried up well.  The main difference, it produces 1100 gallons a minute.

"Well, he advertises a dollar a gallon, so if he don't find you water, he don't get paid," said Foltz.

Around twenty years ago, Goodrich realized he could find a lot more than just water. He said, with his rods, he can find bodies.

 "Any place where there's any trauma involved in it, it picks that up pretty fast," he said, gesturing to his L-rods.

As proof, Goodrich told to the rods to point him to one specific grave in the cemetery. "Find Shawn…"

Walking only in the direction of rods for a couple of minutes, "It pointed me to this stump, okay so we're right here." Standing in the sunlight, with cowboy hat off, Goodrich said a little prayer at the grave site.

"It's coming from a higher power," said Goodrich.

He's been hired to find bodies all over the Midwest, by families searching for lost souls and comfort. "I can't even tell you exactly who it's from, but it's definitely a higher power that's working through this."

 So is it witchcraft? Or just luck?

 "It's proven itself hundreds and hundreds of times, with me, to be right," said Goodrich.

Proven itself, one gallon, and one grave at a time.