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Home›Odd Observations›The (Sometimes) World’s Tallest Fountain in Fountain Hills

The (Sometimes) World’s Tallest Fountain in Fountain Hills

By Sam Lowe
August 2, 2010
4387
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The fountain in Fountain Hills. Photo Credit Sam Lowe.

FOUNTAIN HILLS – There’s some confusion about the World’s Tallest Fountain. What used to be the World’s Tallest Fountain in Fountain Hills has been usurped by the Gateway Geyser in East St. Louis, Illinois, but the Arizona gusher is still the World’s Tallest Fountain sometimes. The Illinois fountain shots a geyser 627 feet into the air, the best the one in Arizona can do is 560 feet, when operating at full capacity.

However, the fountain in East St. Louis operates only from mid-April through mid-October. That factor makes it a part-time world’s tallest, so the Fountain Hills fountain can lay claim to the honor the rest of the year. Three 600-horsepower pumps shoot a six-inch column of water through a nozzle that weighs more than a ton and measures seven feet long.

It was built in 1970 as an attraction to lure buyers to then-developing Fountain Hills.  Robert McCulloch, who envisioned and funded the big spouter, was also responsible for relocating the London Bridge to Lake Havasu. Initially, the fountain spurted 24 hours a day, but due to energy concerns, it now ejects the liquid blast only four times per hour during daylight hours. Water-lovers can view it in the lake at the corner of Avenue of the Fountains and Saguaro.

 

 

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6 comments

  1. Eric Myers 1 September, 2010 at 10:36 Reply

    Amazing! I have lived in Fountain Hills for years now and never knew we were home to the worlds largest fountain. It is certainly beautiful and equally impressive. Im proud to say we have the biggest baddest fountain around!

  2. Paul 4 August, 2011 at 06:43 Reply

    Let’s not forget Joe Coombs, McCulloch’s old friend who engineered the fountain and Lake Havasu City! They were neighbors in Havasu when the Jet Ski was invented by McCulloch.

  3. Andrea Aker 4 August, 2011 at 07:28 Reply

    Nice info Paul!

    • Paul 27 December, 2016 at 19:34 Reply

      Thank you.. he lived his last years in Prescott Az. His daughter Diana Coombs has two daughters and lives in the house he built. She is a broker now, Both girls were raised in a tree house along with a pet buffalo.

  4. Anon 13 July, 2013 at 21:31 Reply

    Fountain Hills does not have the largest fountain in the world. In fact it’s nowhere close. The tallest is the King Fahd fountain in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia at 1,024 feet.

    Fountain Hills’ fountain is impressive and beautiful but don’t believe everything you read online.

  5. Andrea Aker 18 August, 2013 at 13:36 Reply

    The Fountain Hills fountain is no longer the “sometimes tallest” fountain. Check out the update to this story: https://arizonaoddities.com/2013/08/not-even-a-sometimes-tallest-fountain-in-fountain-hills-anymore/

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