South Dakota Well Data · Well logs
South Dakota well logs
Every time a well is drilled in South Dakota, the driller files a completion report — the well log — with the South Dakota DANR well completion report database (NR68). We hold 56,772 of them and rebuild this index weekly, so you can find one by address instead of by record number.
✓ Verified against SD DANR · 2026-08-24
Well logs are filed by location, not by house number. Enter any South Dakota address and we'll pull the recorded wells around it — South Dakota maps every well but records no street address for the well itself — location comes from the section description on the driller's report — so results show the wells around a location rather than a single wellhead.
Free address lookup Full property report — $29What's in a South Dakota well log
Not every filed report carries every field — older logs are thinner, and what the state captured changed over the decades. This is the actual coverage across all 56,772 records, so you know what to expect before you look anything up.
| Field | What it tells you | Records with it | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original log document | A direct link to the SD DANR copy of the filed log itself. | 56,734 (100%) | |
| Mapped location | Coordinates, so the log can be found by address instead of by record number. | 56,561 (100%) | |
| Total depth | How deep the hole was drilled, in feet. | 56,509 (100%) | |
| Date completed | When the well was finished and the log filed. | 55,894 (98%) | |
| Driller | The licensed company that drilled the well and signed the log. | 47,147 (83%) | |
| Static water level | How far below the surface the water stood at rest. | 4,473 (8%) |
When South Dakota's wells were drilled
Dated logs by decade of completion (55,894 of 56,772 records carry a usable completion date). The shape of this chart is mostly the history of the filing requirement, not of drilling — thin early decades mean the logs weren't kept, not that nobody drilled.
| Decade | Logs filed | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 9 | |
| 1890s | 44 | |
| 1900s | 2,232 | |
| 1910s | 2,521 | |
| 1920s | 900 | |
| 1930s | 332 | |
| 1940s | 728 | |
| 1950s | 1,442 | |
| 1960s | 1,845 | |
| 1970s | 6,907 | |
| 1980s | 8,728 | |
| 1990s | 9,229 | |
| 2000s | 11,167 | |
| 2010s | 6,845 | |
| 2020s | 2,965 |
Three ways to find a well log here
- By address — the free lookup maps an address to the wells recorded around it. This is what most people want: "how deep is the well on the place I'm buying."
- By county — each county page carries the median depth, water level and yield computed from every log filed there, plus the drillers working it.
- By driller — every log names the company that drilled the well, so the 175 South Dakota drillers in our directory each have a profile built from their own filed logs.
Well logs by county
See all 66 South Dakota counties →
Where these records come from
All of it is public record from the well completion reports South Dakota drillers file with the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources (danr.sd.gov/OfficeOfWater/WaterRights/default.aspx). We don't hold anything the state doesn't publish. More on that database and what a filed record carries: SD DANR well records. What we add is that the records are indexed by location, the statistics are computed the same way in every county, and the whole thing is refreshed weekly. Our filters and the exact computation are on the methodology page (statistics use SD DANR NR68 well completion reports, water wells only (monitoring, test-hole, geothermal-loop and dewatering records excluded); depths 0-5,000 ft).
Common questions
Yes. South Dakota drillers are required to file a completion report for each well, and those reports are kept by the South Dakota DANR well completion report database (NR68). Anyone can look them up. This site is an independent index of that public record — we re-read the source and recompute every page weekly.
Well logs are filed by location, not by street address, so you search the map rather than a house number. Enter the address on our free lookup and you'll see the recorded wells around that spot — South Dakota maps every well but records no street address for the well itself — location comes from the section description on the driller's report — so results show the wells around a location rather than a single wellhead. Each one shows its depth, static water level, tested yield, and a link to the original filed log.
The oldest dated log in our copy was completed in 1882; the newest is from 2026. Coverage thins out the further back you go — older wells were often never filed, and filing requirements tightened over time.
Most likely it was never filed. Wells drilled before the state's reporting requirement — and hand-dug or unpermitted wells — have no log at all. It also happens that a log exists but its recorded location is off, in which case it will show up under a neighboring property. Neither is something we can fix from the source data, and we'd rather say so than invent a record.
The useful parts for a buyer or a homeowner: how deep the well is, how high the water stands in it, how many gallons per minute it produced when tested, what the driller hit on the way down, and who drilled it. Together those say whether the well is likely to keep producing and what a replacement would cost.
The property report pulls every recorded well near an address — depths, water levels, yields, drillers , and links to each original filed log — as one printable summary for due diligence.
Property report — $29Driller, agent, or inspector pulling these regularly? Unlimited & white-label plans →