The Fountain is a home rule city located in El Paso County, Colorado, United States. The population was 29,802 at the 2020 census. Fountain is a part of the Colorado Springs, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Front Range Urban Corridor.
Fountain is located south of downtown Colorado Springs and just east of Fort Carson. Fountain and the Colorado Springs suburbs Security and Widefield make up the "Fountain Valley" community.
History
Fountain was built in 1859 as a railroad shipping center for local ranches and farms. The town was named for Fountain Creek and was incorporated in 1900.
A train wreck, "The Blast", as it is now known, occurred in Fountain during the spring of 1888. Just after three in the morning on May 14, 1888, a freight train carrying eighteen tons of explosives and a passenger train collided in the city. The accident killed three people: Charles F. Smith, a Fountain lumber dealer originally from Keokuk, Iowa, Henry Hutchins, a Fountain merchant and Mrs. Sarah Widrig a local hat maker from Fountain. (There are conflicting reports of others who may not have died immediately, but later as a result of injuries from the crash.)
The blast from the collision created a very loud explosion that could be heard from miles away. The crash destroyed a nearby church, a grocery store and created a large crater in the ground forty feet in diameter and fifteen feet deep.
"The Blast" remains an important event in the city's history. It is commemorated with an annual street dance held at Fountain's City Hall Plaza each July.
In 1999, Fountain was chosen as "America's Millennium City" by The New York Times. Fountain was named an "All-America City" in 2002 by the National Civic League. The city is the home of Pikes Peak International Raceway.
thumb|Fountain Valley Town Hall|left
In 2008, in a controversial move, the city of Fountain purchased a ranch, the H2O Ranch in Custer County, for $3.5 million. The city was interested in the prime water rights on the property totaling a year. Fountain is in the process of drying out the ranch and moving through the water courts to actually receive some of that water. They claim that they should be able to successfully receive 600 of that after the water courts have made their decisions. It is expected that Fountain will separate the water from the ranch and then sell the ranch separately.
In 2014, Cop Car began filming in Fountain.
In 2020, Fountain water was considered safe to drink after a long running contamination problem with PFCs (perflourinated compounds) being leaked into the water table by the nearby Air Force base. According to a recent study, PFCs have been shown to cause penile shrinkage.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which are land and , or 0.99%, are water. The eponymous Fountain Creek flows south through the city.