We can’t promise that the following facts will ever show up in a trivia game, but they sure are fun to pull out of your pocket when your out-of-town guests start asking questions.
Did you know?
- The World Famous Fountain celebrates its 50-year anniversary in 2020. It was created in 1970 by C.V. Wood, Jr. who created the master plans for each of the community developments of McCulloch Properties, Inc, the original developer of Fountain Hills.
- The Fountain’s nozzle was built in Zurich, Switzerland, weighs nearly a ton and is more than seven feet in length.
- The Fountain was modeled after the Jet D’Eau in Geneva, Switzerland.
- The Fountain draws from a 33-acre, one million-gallon, man-made lake. Its plume rises from a concrete water lily sculpture in the center of the lake.
- The Fountain is driven by three 600 horsepower turbine pumps and sprays water at a rate of 7,000 US gallons per minute through an 18-inch nozzle.
- In normal operations, only two of the pumps are used and its plume rises approximately 300 feet.
- On special occasions, the Fountain’s plume can attain 560 feet with all three pumps running. That height is 5’ taller than the Washington Monument and more than 3 times as high as Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone Park.
- Currently, the Fountain runs every hour from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily for 15 minutes. In the event of winds exceeding 8 mph, the Fountain will automatically shut down.
- The Fountain Hills Fountain is the world’s fourth-tallest fountain. When it was built, it was the world’s largest fountain, a record it held for more than a decade.
- The Fountain is dyed green each St. Patrick’s Day.
Sources: The Town of Fountain Hills website, Fountain Hills Historians Facebook Page and plazafountainside.com
