GEM Cistern Pump - General Store - Drake, MO - Hand Operated Water Pumps on Waymarking.com

County of pump: Gasconade County
Loction of pump: MO-19, US-50 & MO-ZZ, in front of store on old well, Drake

This pump has been here for some time, I doubt if it has been here since 1868, but could very well be here sine the 1880's.

Pump Details:
" Individual rubber "buckets" mounted on a chain (Chain and Buckets sold separately) and powered by crank, lift water up through a heavy plastic tube (not included). Raise water straight up from as much as 30', from cisterns, tanks and even ponds, lakes or rivers - fast enough to fill a 5-gallon bucket in under a minute.

  • Lift water up to 30 feet
  • Cast iron drive and spout
  • Galvanized housing and tough plastic pipe and reservoir with a Powder-coated steel frame
  • Minimum opening of 3" x 13" in mounting platform is needed
  • For drop pipe use 1-1/2" plastic pipe (widely available, you supply as much as you need)
  • 44" Tall, Mounting Flange 12-1/4" x 15-1/4" Head weight 38 lbs
  • Drop Pipe and Chain/Buckets sold separately"
~ Cincinnati GEM Pumps

The writer of the Historic Survey, must never have visited the site, and he/she seems to have little interest in accuracy of reality.
This building in 1981 (survey date) was an antique store. But the survey writer took it to be a place people dumped junk, because he/she did not put much effort in find the truth.

"In the late nineteenth century, Drake was a center for trade and crafts in rural Gasconade County. The Drake General Store must have been the gathering place for the area. Unlike its counterpart in Bay, the store has not survived its original use. Now it seems to be a place where people drop their junk for want of a better place to get rid of it. According to the local population, old stoves, oil drums, etc. appear from time to time and disappear from time to time." ~ DNR Historic Survey   PDF page 67