Soap Lake  

Sundial: 652
State/Province:  Washington Country:  USA
Dial Type:  Sculpture/Artwork Condition:  Excellent
  Latitude and Longitude: 47° 23.511' N  119° 29.085' W
Location:
  • East Beach City Park at extreme south-east end of Soap Lake, just west of Highway 17.
    Soap Lake, Washington
 
Description:
  • A monumental, 1-1/3 life-size bronze, steel and basalt rock sundial sculpture of a human figure with raised arm serving as a gnomon. The sculpture, "Calling the Healing Waters," depicts a young Native American couple as Father Sky and Mother Earth, sacred essence of rain and minerals connecting and bringing healing. Reflecting ethnic and historical themes, the winged warrior protects and comforts the maiden holding a catch basin for the healing waters. The sculpture was commissioned to honor the healing properties of the waters of Soap Lake.

    The feathered arm of the sculpture falls short of the latitude angle by ten degrees. NASS member Roger Bailey performed a shadow plane analysis based on the actual arm angle of 37° to optimize the design as a sundial. The tip of the feathered arm now serves as the point-in-space gnomon of a horizontal sundial. With the sculpture already cast in bronze and in-place, Roger worked with the project manager to optimally place DST hour markers and hour lines to show the best-possible shadow times mid-morning to late afternoon during the summer months. The optimization effectively shifted the center of the 46-foot hour circle south about six feet. Time is read on the hour lines by the shadow of the feathers at the tip of the curved arm of the figure.
 
General Information:
  • Owner: City of Soap Lake
  • Designer: David Govedare and Keith Powell, artists
  • Builder: Soap Lake Garden Club; David Govedare and Keith Powell
  • Construction Date: Decicated on 9 June 2009
 

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