When I bought my place the older woman who sold it had no info on the well. I have since spoken with the well drilling company and was told that it was drilled 280' deep and has 60' of casing. The office gal that I spoke to could not answer my question so, I turn here.

Question:

Why would the well be drilled so deep and have only 60' of casing?

It does not make sense to me but, I know nothing of the subject.

Thanks for any input!

Only needs casing down to the point at which they hit rock. Casing is in the soil layer, rest of well has no casing is in bedrock.

What Dusty said.

thanks guys

Working for a municipal utility water department I oversaw the drilling of 3 wells 12" wide and all over 1'000 feet deep. When the wells are drilled, there is a test that shows on a graph where the best water supply is in that aquifer. From known data of existing well you pretty much know how far down you will have to drill. So if you have to go to 300', you will likely have 20' at the bottom where there is no screening (called the basement) and screening up from the bottom to the confining section of the aquifer.
In that 300' you may have passed through another aquifer where the water is not at the volume you need or is contaminated.

Go look at the well, nowadays the driller puts a tag that shows depth, casing, output...if it’s missing then maybe you can put a new one on it for the next guy.

Usually there is a well log filed with the state as most states will require a permit to drill a domestic water well. The well log will have many details about the construction and specs on what the well will produce.