The Night the Cistern Filled: A Rancher Who Slept Through Water

The Night the Cistern Filled: A Rancher Who Slept Through Water

Cold, clear water rose to within eight inches of the lid of a sealed concrete cistern overnight in the middle of a drought, filling 2,800 gallons on a ranch whose only well had gone dry twenty-three days earlier-so how did it happen without a break in the bolts, a witness, or any rain? What does a four-minute phone call at 11:47 p.m., a mysterious credit-card charge, and a physician’s note about sleep-related actions reveal about that night?

In this episode, we follow the documented evidence found at Creosote Flat Ranch and the records Charles Bishop produced when questioned: a timestamped photograph, a phone call log to a water-hauling company, and contemporaneous accounts from the well contractor and neighbors, each pointing to the same baffling event. Can these physical records and personal accounts be reconciled with a night Bishop cannot recall?

Person: Charles Bishop
Location: Creosote Flat Ranch, Luna County, New Mexico
Date: February 4 (cistern found full); well went dry on January 12
Volume: approximately 2,800 gallons in cistern
Phone Call: outgoing Feb 3, 11:47 p.m., duration 4 minutes 12 seconds, to Desert Draw Services

- The cistern is concrete, 12 feet in diameter and 8 feet deep, and was filled to about 8 inches below the lid.
- Grant Evans photographed the interior at 7:04 a.m. on February 4 and also photographed rusted bolts showing no fresh tool marks.
- The ranch’s only well had pulled air and stopped yielding on January 12, twenty-three days before the cistern was found full.
- Luna County was in its fourth consecutive dry year with a 63% precipitation deficit against historical average at the time.
- Bishop’s phone record shows an outgoing call to Desert Draw Services on Feb 3 at 11:47 p.m. lasting 4 minutes 12 seconds.

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