Carefree, Arizona - America's Largest Sundial

Carefree, Arizona - World's Largest Sundial

The World's Largest Sundial sits in "downtown" Carefree, Arizona. A plaque on the dial reads:

"Solar engineer John Yellot and architect Joe Wong designed the sundial for K.T. Palmer in 1959. It stretches 62 feet and points to the North Star. Solar local time is 27.7 minutes behind Mountain Standard Time and the hour markers are adjusted to compensate. The town of Carefree added copper cladding in 1990."

Buildings and shops surround the sundial from nearly all sides, making photographing this beast a tad difficult. In addition to the large sundial, there is a much smaller sundial installed on a rock at the base(the set donated by the local Kiwanis Club). There is also some kind of artsy ball hanging from the sundial arm, as well as a fountain at the base and an artsy "Carefree" sign made of wrought iron which is painted red. [Greg Brown, 03/24/2001]

[RA: July 2007: Tipster "Kevin" points out that "The gigantic equatorial sundial in Jaipur, India is almost 1/2 of an acre in size," and beats these other sundials. August 2005: Tipster "David" informs us that the town of Singleton in Australia claims to have a larger sundial than Carefree's...]