Depending on if you have electricity (or want to use it) you can put in a shallow well pump to get the water out of there. I've seen hand pumps for sale as well. If there is a spring (do you see water seeping out of the hill anywhere?), you can dig down a few feet till you hit the water and then make a home made spring house (we made one, you can get a 55 gallon plastic barrel), so to speak. We just put another one in to fill up a 1000 gallon tank we had installed years ago for a gravity feed system. We dug down until we had a hole big enough to fit the 55 gallon barrel (you can sometimes see them advertised for sale in the newspaper) into. We buried it, but make sure to use gravel (we used limestone, 2b) around the sides so the dirt doesn't get into the tank as easily. Just below where the barrel was flush with the ground, we drilled some holes into the barrel so the water can filter in. Better the holes be below ground than above it. Fill in around the barrel with limestone so dirt won't fill everything in. Put a few inches of gravel on top of the barrel, then cover with a small tarp and then cover over with dirt, or big rocks. My husband then drilled a hole into the front of the barrel and put a tap in so the water has a place to go. That's about it. We had to put in some breather valve at the end of the line because the air bubble in the line kept the water from flowing into the collection tank.
Hope this helps you out a bit!

Depending on the watering system you want to use, and the water pressure in the areas to be watered, you might be able to simply use a gravity-fed system with a siphon-hose. You might waste a bit of water that way, unless you can manage to have the holes/leaky part of the hoses exactly where you want them, but it wouldn't entail too much outlay - and might allow you to use up the old, holey hoses we all manage to accumulate (don't say you are so tidy you have thrown them all away!!! :-)). If you have enough water-pressure, then a soaker hose (one with actual holes in the hose, rather than a "leaky" one, if the pressure is questionable) would deliver the water you want where you want it. Buying some hose-ends, you could make lengths of soaker hose - as long or short as you want - and connect non-soaker hoses to go between the areas you want to water. You would have to keep moving things around, and be sure everything got enough water, but it's a thought.

Otherwise, a good hardware store should have a small water pump, if there's electricity closeby enough. If you can't find a pump locally, look for Lehman's catalogue - they are on-line and cater to back-to-earth types, as well as to Amish and old-style Mennonites.

Brian: I don't know anything about water table levels in your area, but in this area I would say you found an old cistern. A cistern was a concrete lined resivour much like you describe. The water was stored there from another source such as downspouts from buildings to collect rainwater. There would have been a handpump of some sort to pump water out for use.
However, if you can pump it out and it refills on its own, you may very well have a well.

My first thought was the same as KS Farmer, but you could very well have a shallow hand dug well. I wouldn't drink from it until you have it tested for Microflora/Choliform, Herbicides, and Pesticide contamination. I know of at least one well in this area that is known to have been infected with the typhoid bacillus, so I would err on the side of caution until you get a report on it.

If the well tests pure you could use a shallow well electric pump either using available AC power or look into buying a solar powered system. The biggest difference is you would have a solar voltaic panel, a set of DC batteries, and a power inverter. Another obvious choice is a windmill and pump with a storage tank. You can still get the windmills and pumps and as for the tank all you would need is either a large stock tank or a bulk tank like what is used to hold water for agricultural spraying.

I also thought of another way to lift the water, without doing it manually or with a permeanant pump. You can buy a gasoline or electric powered portable pump. You will need a section of suction line, a strainer and foot valve for the line, and a roll of butyl plastic line will work, with adapters, on the discharge side. If you opt for the gas powered one you can use it for everything for pumping water from ponds to basements. You can find them at most farm supply stores, or through companies like W. W. Grainger, Northern Tool, or Harbor Freight.

I got a pump from Harbor Freight. Here it is

Well pump

I put a pipe with a foot valve and strainer about 10 feet down into the well connected it to the pump, primed the pump, started it and no water comes out. The directions are not very detailed It is running, but is not building any presure. I even filled the inlet pipe with water. Maybe there is air in the lines, how do you bleed it out? The pressure tank is charged as well. Obviously I am new at this, and probobly missing some thing simple.

Brian

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I found a detailed set of plumbing directions

Here is a link that might be useful: plumbing directions .PDF

I got it working. I just kept pouring water in the prime port as it was running untill it started to pump. Works great, I will just have to figure out the recovery time, the water level dropped about a foot or so as I was running an impact sprinkler for an hour. Hopefully the well will be able to keep up. Once I figure this out I'll make a more permanent installation.

Brian

I'm glad that you got the old water supply source to working again. I hadn't checked this site for awhile, so I didn't know you had bought the pump and was having problems with it. Sometimes the tank becomes "water logged" and you have to drain off water and add air pressure. (At least with the larger ones like I have used for deep wells and home/farm water supplies.) This problem shouldn't happen with a precharged tank like what your shallow well pump came with. Sometimes with the Harbor Freight items you have to go through a number of steps to get it to run right. I've got a pancake air compressor that has had a bad starter switch ever since I got it. When I first got it I had a repairman working for me who got it working, and kept it running. Then he quit and I haven't been able to use it since, I'm just going to have to take it in to the repair shop and have it worked on.

Good luck with the old well, I hope it supplies you with enough water for your garden this summer.
Kevin

I got it going, I just kept sraying water in the priming hole untill it pumped. It works well. I get lots of flow and pressure and can run the sprinklers for 2 to 3 hours before it gets low then it takes a day or so to recover. Is this normal recovery time? Now I just have to make a more permanet installation.

Brian

If I use my old gravity fed well only in the summer I wont have to bury it 3 feet right?