Grand Haven Musical Fountain facts for kids

The Grand Haven Musical Fountain is an amazing show of water and lights. It's located in Grand Haven, Michigan, on Dewey Hill. This hill is on the north side of the Grand River. It's also close to where the river meets Lake Michigan and Grand Haven State Park.

You can watch the shows every night from Memorial Day to Labor Day. They also have weekend shows in May and September. The performances start when it gets dark and last about 25 to 30 minutes.

The idea for the fountain came from Dr. William “Bill” Creason. He was a dentist and a former mayor of Grand Haven. He was inspired after seeing a similar musical fountain in Germany. This was after he served in the US Navy during World War II.

The fountain plays many different themes. Sometimes the narration sounds like a 12-year-old girl. Other times, it sounds like a grown man. On July 4th, there's a special patriotic show with fireworks. In August, a show honors the United States Coast Guard during the Coast Guard Festival. In 2011, new music by the USCG Band was added to this show. About 10,000 people watch the fountain each year, not counting special events.

How the Musical Fountain Works

A local engineer named William Morris Booth II designed the fountain. Volunteers built it in 1962. It cost about $250,000 at the time. This made it the biggest musical fountain in the world back then!

The fountain uses different water shapes. These are grouped into odd and even sections. There are also water curtains at the front and back. A large fan-shaped spray is called the Peacock. Three powerful fire hose nozzles shoot water high into the air. One is in the middle, and two are angled from the sides. This creates a beautiful "Dancing Waters" style show.

Colored lights are placed along the front of the fountain. These lights can be red, blue, amber, and white. The back curtain and Peacock sprays have their own lights. The back curtain uses green and yellow. The Peacock has two sets of red, blue, and amber lights.

Special nozzles called "sweeps" create moving effects. They sway from side to side. A unique system allows these sweeps to move together or in opposite directions. They can also move in long or short paths. They can even move at three different speeds. This lets the moving water match almost any kind of music.

The first shows used punched paper cards to control the fountain. Now, computers control the system. The original nozzles and pumps are still used today. They are just cleaned and cared for. Shows still need to be programmed by hand.

Controlling the Fountain's Magic

In 1983, the fountain stopped using punch tape. It switched to a new control system. This system allowed for better control of the water valves and lights. Programmers used a Radio Shack TRS 80 Model 4 computer. They typed special commands to create the shows. Then, they recorded the show onto a tape. It took over 200 hours to make one 20-minute show!

In 2006, a new computer system was introduced. This system made it easier to program shows. It let programmers visually design the fountain's movements. The new system also controlled the fountain directly. This meant more complex water and lighting effects were possible. Now, a 20-minute show can have over 5,000 water and lighting commands!

The software was updated again in 2017. This update added even more lighting and water effects. You can even download the software for free!

Fountain's Water System Facts

• Width: 240 feet
• Water basin capacity: 40,000 gallons
• Pipe length: 8,000 feet (about 1.5 miles)
• Nozzles: 1,300 nozzles, from tiny to 1 inch wide
• Water flow: 4,000 gallons per minute
• Maximum spray height: 125 feet (as tall as a 12-story building!)

Fountain's Lighting System

New LED Lights (Since 2013)

• Uses 32 special LED lights.
• These lights shine from the front and underneath.
• They use very little power, usually under 1000 watts.
• LED lights use 98% less power than old lights.
• They are also twice as bright!
• LED lights can change color super fast, in 1/1000 of a second.
• They can create 16 million different colors!

Older Lights

• There were 446 older lights.
• They used a lot of power, 116,200 watts.
• Six main colors were used and mixed together.
• These lights took about half a second to reach full brightness.

Fountain's Sound System

• Subwoofers: 32 large 18-inch speakers for deep bass sounds.
• Horns: 12 large speakers for high-pitched sounds.
• Power: 14 power amplifiers with 35,000 watts total.
• Control: The system has 4 independent control zones.
• Cables: About a mile and a half of cable is used.
• Loudness: The sound can reach over 130 decibels at the shoreline. This is very loud!
• Watts per channel: 12,000 watts for each sound channel.