Watering Beyond the Grave
By Jordan Wolff
The real reason the Engineering Mall water fountain is never turned on has been uncovered.
Spring is in the air, which means the flowers are blooming, the snow is melting, and the whole UW-Madison campus is buzzing with excitement for the impending summer break. This is the time of year when students everywhere begin to lift their heads up, away from the blistering winds, and truly notice their surroundings. As a third-year engineering student, I spend a lot of my time on Engineering Mall, gazing at all the beauty it holds. Engineering Hall is the pinnacle of all engineering creativity to which this campus succumbs; as such, the Máquina Fountain, also known as the Descendant’s Fountain, is its centerpiece. The fountain hints at the coming summer. But wait- where is the water? For years, many have wondered the very same question, “What is the real reason this fountain is never on?” I sat down with UW-Madison lead water engineer and former firefighter Walter Fontaine to find out the answer to this very question.
The story behind the emergence and eventual desertion of water in the fountain all starts in 1892 — the same year that the Wisconsin Engineer Magazine was first published. In the very spot that the fountain now stands once stood a small, modest sprinkler that watered the faculty’s gardens. “I remember my great-grandfather telling me stories of how much that small sprinkler made a difference in the campus,” the misty-eyed Fontaine recalls. This watering device, dubbed the Founders’ Sprinkler, not only had an immediate impact for the community, but its legacy is what carried the most weight. This sprinkler stood until 1996, when the new Máquina Fountain was built, with Fontaine leading the way. The fountain lived every bit up to its predecessor, providing bountiful years of water-powered creativity for students and faculty and standing as a symbol of engineering achievement for the campus.
“I guess the environment is more important than a water fountain.” — Walter Fontaine
The fountain, however, did not carry the sprinkler’s sustained impact throughout its entire lifetime. There have been rumors going around about the fountain not being properly constructed, or about how the engineers constructing the fountain did not account for gravity, causing the water jets to not meet up in the middle, spewing water all over the place. There was even a rumor that, at some points in the evening, the sun would bounce off the water and cause students studying in Engineering Hall to be blinded. “Any rumor you’ve heard is fake. I am the best water engineer this city has ever seen,” Fontaine argues.
The remarkable fountain has been shut off for over three years. The university has been undergoing some changes in the past few years, and these include decisions on where our natural resources will go. Simply put, the university needed to use the water that had been directed to the fountain for more environmentally friendly purposes. This is part of the campus-wide We Conserve program to use water and other local natural resources, like beer, for environmentally important activities. “I guess the environment is more important than a water fountain,” Fontaine philosophizes.
Nevertheless, the waterless fountain still influences the engineering students; the legacy of the sprinkler lives on through the water usage throughout campus. The 40,000 gallons of water per day the fountain once used is now allocated to environmental projects such as Allen Centennial Gardens, whose luscious green plants would not thrive without the help of these water resources. Because of the increased water supply, it is rumored somewhere hidden on the garden grounds is a 12-foot tall Venus Flytrap. This was Fontaine’s idea to commemorate his parents, who were eaten by the same type of plant when he was a child. In addition to environmental impact, since the fountain was shut off, 143 new water fountains (or “bubblers,” as the locals call them), have been built throughout the surrounding Madison metropolitan area. “Before this fountain was turned off, I was always thirsty. Now with all the bubblers, my mouth is never dry,” UW student and avid swimmer Timmy Muffington adds.
The Máquina Fountain will long live as a centerpiece of the engineering campus at UW-Madison. Although students, faculty, and visitors may never again see the geyser-like jets of the fountain emerge, they can still appreciate the profound impact it has on the UW-Madison community. What was once a small sprinkler affecting a small part of campus now has an impact that reaches further than Fontaine, students, and faculty ever could have imagined. The Descendant’s Fountain truly is watering beyond the grave.
