If you are headed east out of Scottsdale on Shea Boulevard and glance to the north, don’t be surprised to glimpse a huge towering spout of water. This is Fountain Hill’s beautiful fountain, one of the tallest in the world that was even listed in Guinness World Records.
Fountain Hills is a quaint master-planned community, designed back in the 1960’s by Charles Wood, Jr., the designer of Disneyland in California. The town has varying desert terrain and a topography that allows for challenging golf courses and the atypical hillside home found in the typically flat terrain of the Valley of the Sun.
Fountain Hills is known for its fountain and this man-made geyser can be seen spraying its majesty from as far off as the North Scottsdale golf communities of Mirabel and Desert Mountain.
Nothing was spared in the design and construction and it boasts a surrounding expanse of meticulously manicured grass landscape which invites thousands of visitors to sit and enjoy the water show annually.
Fun fountain facts:
- The fountain sprays water for about 15 minutes every hour at the top of the hour between 9:00 am and 9:00 pm
- The fountain’s plume rises from a concrete water lily sculpture in the center of the 30 acre man-made lake
- The fountain is driven by three 600 horsepower (450kW) turbine pumps
- The fountain sprays water at a rate of 7,000 gallons per minute though an 18-inch nozzle
- The fountain can reach 560 feet (170m) in height
- The fountain was the tallest in the world and held that record for over a decade
There are also eight fountains along the Avenue of the Fountains in Fountain Hills which started the collection of over 100 pieces of public artwork found interspersed throughout the town.
So the next time you are headed out-of-town to the pine country of Payson, make sure you look to the North or even better, drive down into Fountain Hills and take a gander at their beautiful fountain.
Looking for homes for sale in Scottsdale or Fountain Hills? Contact me at (480) 351-5359 to learn more about our area, and to make an appointment to view properties.
