The Fountain Hills Fountain: History, Height, and Fun Facts
If you have ever stood on the Avenue of the Fountains at the top of the hour and watched that plume shoot into the sky, you already know why this town is named what it is. The fountain is the first thing most visitors ask about, and honestly, even after living my whole life here, I still stop to watch it every once in a while. Here is the real story behind it, plus a few facts that are fun to know the next time you have guests in town.
How the Fountain Came to Be
Fountain Hills was founded in December of 1970 as a master planned community by Robert McCulloch, the same developer behind the reconstruction of the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City the following year. The town itself was designed by Charles Wood Jr, who also helped design Disneyland. The fountain went in that same founding year and quickly became the community's signature landmark, the whole reason the town carries the name it does.
How Tall Does It Actually Get
This is the question everyone asks first. In normal day to day operation, the fountain runs on two of its three turbine pumps and reaches about 300 feet. On special occasions, when all three pumps are running, it can reach 560 feet, which is 5 feet taller than the Washington Monument and more than three times the height of Old Faithful in Yellowstone. When it was built in 1970, it was the tallest fountain in the world and held that record for more than a decade. Today it ranks as the fourth tallest fountain in the world and the second tallest in the United States.
The Engineering Behind It
The fountain is powered by three 600 horsepower turbine pumps that push water at a rate of 7,000 gallons per minute through an 18-inch nozzle. That nozzle alone was built in Zurich, Switzerland, weighs nearly a ton, and is more than seven feet long. The design was actually modeled after the famous Jet d'Eau fountain in Geneva, Switzerland. All of that water is drawn from a 33-acre, one million gallon manmade lake, with the plume rising out of a concrete water lily sculpture at its center. The water itself is reclaimed water from the Fountain Hills Sanitary District, the same source used to irrigate Fountain Park and several of the local golf courses.
When You Can See It Run
The fountain runs for about 15 minutes at the top of every hour, daily from 9am to 9pm. One thing a lot of visitors do not know is that it automatically shuts down anytime winds exceed 8 mph, so if you show up and it is not running, that is usually why.
A Few Fun Facts to Impress Your Guests
Every St. Patrick's Day, the fountain is dyed green for the occasion, a local tradition people plan trips around. The fountain sits at an elevation of about 1,520 feet, with the surrounding McDowell Mountains rising well above that around town. And while most people think of it as just a beautiful landmark, it is technically a piece of functioning infrastructure, tied directly into the town's water reclamation system.
Why It Still Matters Today
More than 50 years later, the fountain is still the heart of this community. It is where people gather for events, where photos get taken for every occasion from engagements to graduations, and it is usually the first thing people fall in love with before they fall in love with the town itself. If you are thinking about making Fountain Hills home, I would love to show you around, starting right there at the fountain.