Through The agesFor over 120 years, the Shannahan name has meant quality water systems. We offer a variety of drilling services for all of your water needs including domestic use, lawn irrigation and agricultural irrigation. We also handle municipal wells and vertical loops for geothermal energy applications.
We have five drilling rigs as well as five service rigs ready to meet your needs. Our employees are professional, courteous and highly skilled, and most have been with the company for over 20 years. We have four master well drillers, four journeymen well drillers and two apprentice well drillers. Our business is licensed in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia allowing us to service all of Delmarva and parts of the Western Shore. |
1883-1896
In 1883, John Henry Kelly Shannahan established the J.H.K. Shannahan Artesian Well Company. He is credited with having drilled the first Artesian well in Easton, Maryland. It flowed better and claimed better water than anyone else had, and he sold it by the barre COLUMN WITH BACKGROUND COLOR |
1896-1952
Around 1896, Norman Shannahan, Sr. started working for the well company and later took over the business. Norman, Sr. always believed that if you worked hard and did the very best job you could, everything else would take care of itself. That idea still holds true today. At that time, they started steam operated drilling rigs which sometimes took many weeks to complete one system. The rig itself was made of wood and iron and the rig's mast was made of wood and stood about thirty feet tall. It was capable of drilling down to two thousand feet although one well was drilled to over one thousand feet for the Town of Easton and the Town of Middleton, Delaware. The steam rig finally gave way to cable tool rigs and then to the present-day mud rotary rigs. COLUMN WITH BACKGROUND COLOR |
1896-1952
Norman Shannahan, Jr. worked for his father until 1952 when Norman, Sr. passed away and left the task of running the family business to him. He went after the task with the same enthusiasm and the same philosophies his father had. Norman, Jr. had two sons, Norman III and John Trippe (Jack), who both worked for their father for many years. COLUMN WITH BACKGROUND COLOR |