The Straufelsbrunnen is located in the Straufelstal valley in Esthal, below the cemetery. The fountain consists of 5 troughs and 4 tapping stones. The water bubbling out from underneath a wall is led in sandstone channels to a distributor stone, which allows it to flow into the sandstone troughs. The well can be reached from the village via a narrow path from the cemetery and via an old cart track from the duck alley. The well is probably over 250 years old and used to serve as a watering place for cattle and to irrigate the fields and meadows in the Straufelstal valley. Drinking water was also drawn from the troughs in earlier times and it was still in use as a washing well until 1950.
It was a long and arduous journey, Hildegard Baumann (née Bleh) and Christa Seiller (née Kuhn) remember very well. As children, they helped their mothers with the laundry in Straufelstal, just as all the other children helped their mothers. With the wooden wheelbarrow, loaded with the full "Weschbrenk", they went down to the well. After washing, the children took the rope attached to the wheelbarrow and helped as best they could to pull the heavy load up the hill.
Info from: https://www.esthal.de/staufelsbrunnen/
