Push Button for Horseshoe Fountain

Too Good to Be True

I rode up to this fountain expecting it to be shut off for the season, or non-functional due to economic cutbacks. I must have passed by this place on the corner of Marshall Way and Indian School Road 500 times without pausing to check out these rusty columns. "Horseshoe Falls" by Michael Malich (1999) lists as its materials "iron, concrete, fog". I read on the Scottsdale Public Art site that it is constructed in a horseshoe shape out of stacked horseshoes, and that it emits fog. Which I arrived fully resigned to being disappointed in, since I have something of a track record of fog fountains not fogging for me. The stacked horseshoes with concrete cores are very structural looking, like you could build a house out of them that would not blow down.

  In Case You Ever Felt Like Stacking Horseshoes Around a Concrete Core

I leaned my steel bike against the rusty iron pillars, kind of disappointed but resolved, since everything looked very dry and as expected, free of fountains of fog. "Iron, concrete, " yes, fog, no. Oh well.

My Bike in a Fog-Free Fountain

I walked around to look at the (dry, rusty, no-fog) thing from different angles, when suddenly, I saw the button sticking up out of the ground: PUSH BUTTON FOR HORSESHOE FOUNTAIN. Oh, could it be that easy? Could fortune smile on me so brightly, so sweetly? I moved my bike out of the potential fountain zone, and pushed. Here's what happened:

Is That Cool or What?

After the fog cleared and my heart slowed, I pushed it a few more times. What pure, enjoyable fun, from an 11 year old stack of rusty horseshoes and concrete. It made me smile and laugh for the rest of the ride. People in the area now know what they have long suspected: I'm a whacko. Else why would I spin along the canal waving at people, laughing, and saying "PUSH BUTTON FOR HORSESHOE FOUNTAIN"? More art on the way. Bikes too. Get up. Go ride.

Rocks and Rust Wet from the Fog