Daylight Saving: Donuts and Mirrors

0:00This message is brought to you by Apple Card. Apple Card members can earn unlimited daily cash back on everyday purchases wherever they shop. That means you could be earning daily cash on just about anything, like a slice of pizza from your local pizza place or a latte from your favorite coffee shop. Apply for Apple Card in the wallet app to see your credit limit offer in minutes, subject to credit approval, Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch terms and more at applecard.com. The perfect Texas vacation mixes adventure with R&R, explore the natural beauty of iconic state parks, or unwind unbeautiful beaches. Both are unique to the Lone Star State. When you get hungry, enjoy world-famous barbecue or find dining across Texas. Discover nightlife from dance floors to live music. Texas isn't just a destination, it is a one-of-a-kind experience. Visit traveltexas.com and start planning today.

1:03Let's Texas. Hey, it's Kelly McEvers, co-host of Atlas Obscura. And I am here with a request. I know it's still winter in some places, but as we are gearing up for the next season, I have an early ask. Tell us about your unforgettable spring break travel stories. Where did you go? When did you make the trip? Who did you go with? What made the trip special to you? Why does it still live in your head? What encouraged you to make this trip? Did everything go as planned or did things go wrong? Why? We want to hear it all. Give us a call at 315-992-7902 and leave us a message telling us your name and your story. Our mailbox will cut you off after three minutes, so please call in if you get disconnected or, better, you can record a voice memo and give it to us. Hello at atlasobscura.com. We cannot wait to hear from you.

2:04Until next time. On March 8th, 2026, we will all lose an hour of sleep. Well, everybody in the U.S. at least. Or actually, I guess I should say almost everybody in the U.S. Daylight Savings Time is weird to say the least. It is arbitrary, it's uneven, and sometimes it is really inconvenient. But there's also something deeply human about it. We love the Sun. We'll do almost anything to get more of it. Even if our methods are slightly hair-brained. I'm Johanna Mayer and this is Atlas Obscura,

3:04a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places. Today, in honor of Daylight Savings Time, we are talking about the Sun and how we try to bend it to our will. Producer Jerome Campbell and I will visit two places with very different approaches to harnessing that great big ball of fire in the sky. One imposes rules on it, wreaking havoc on residents and travelers. And the other tries to physically manipulate it. We begin in Arizona. It's kind of fun to complain about Daylight Savings Time. Does this country observe it? Does that state? Oops, totally slept through that doctor's appointment this morning. Who came up with this anyway? But when you learn about one specific area in Arizona, you may realize how easy you have it.

4:05This place is called the Daylight Savings Donut. For six months out of the year, Arizona lives in peaceful harmony. Residents float through the day in perfect synchrony with the rest of the country and the rest of the state. Then, when the clock strikes 2 a.m., or I guess you could say 3 a.m., on that fateful Sunday in March, all hell breaks loose. Arizona has long opted out of Daylight Savings Time. Who needs an extra hour of sunlight in the steaming desert? It's just another hour that you have to spend money running the air conditioner and hiding indoors. But within Arizona, in the northeast part of the state, is the Navajo Nation. It's a 27,000 square mile swath of land, and it's semi-autonomous, meaning that they can set things like local laws,

5:06education systems, and time management. And since parts of the reservation extend into the neighboring states of Utah and New Mexico, both of which, by the way, do observe Daylight Savings Time. The Navajo Nation decided to follow suit. So we are left with this big dot in the middle of Arizona, where Daylight Savings hold strong. But we are not talking about the Daylight Savings dot here. We're talking about the Daylight Savings donut. See, the Navajo Nation sits within Arizona, and within the Navajo Nation is the Hopi Nation. The Hopi Nation is also semi-autonomous, and because the Hopi Nation sits entirely within Arizona,

6:08without touching Utah or New Mexico, guess what they decided to do about Daylight Savings Time. So now you can see the donut take shape. The Hopi Nation is a donut hole. The Navajo Nation is a donut proper, and Arizona is the plate that the donut is sitting on. A circle of 11 a.m. surrounded by a ring of noon, surrounded by a sea of 11 a.m. As you can imagine, this is not always convenient for the people who live there. Think about living in one time zone, but working in another. It takes about two and a half hours to drive from Sedona to the Hopi Nation. That's three time zones in less than three hours. If all this makes you curse Daylight Savings Time, remember that it could still be worse. Before Congress standardized things in 1966, states did all sorts of stuff.

7:10At one point, Iowa had 23 different pairs of Daylight Savings start and end dates. There was a bus route between West Virginia and Ohio that changed time zones seven times in a 35-mile period. Of course, when Congress standardized Daylight Savings Time, any state could exempt itself, and Arizona sure did. And besides, all will be back in order in the Daylight Savings donut. When the clocks fall back again in November, maybe time is the construct after all. At the core of this conversation about Daylight Savings Time, there's this tension between the sun and, frankly, work. For most of human history, the harvest drove the clock.

8:10Summer sunshine allowed for lengthy work days. While shorter winter days prompted an early end to labor. But over the centuries, our work changed. Field work became office work, and we developed artificial light sources, like candles and light bulbs, to extend our daily grind into the dark. Now, before you shake your fists and blame another thing on technology, producer Jerome Campbell has a story about a technological tool that helped one community keep their rhythm with our solar clock. It starts in a small town in Norway. The impetus for the town of Rukon started like most, spurred on by industry. In the 1910s, a Norwegian power company searched the country for a place to build new infrastructure. And the small village of farmsteads harbored the ideal conditions for its expansion.

9:11The town's namesake and nearby water source, Rukon Falls, was the crown and jewel. Its cascading waters would power one of the world's largest hydroelectric dams, supplying plenty of power for the surrounding area. However, these perfect industrious conditions proved imperfect for town residents. Right outside the city stood a mountain over a mile high. And every year, around the time of the September autumn equinox, the sun's daily journey dipped ever closer to the horizon, sinking lower and lower with each passing day, until its rays no longer surpassed the mountain summit, casting a long shadow of wintery blues on residents for half the year. The people of Rukon wanted the sun back, so they turned to the engineering prowess that birthed the town for an answer. In the 1928, there was a fix, a gondola system.

10:18Cable cars carried the residents in a mountain's crest where they caught the clear light of the sun. It wasn't a perfect solution. The trek to meet the sun was now longer than they ever had to travel. What they needed was for the sun to meet them. And that solution came nearly a century later and would be devised by an artist. Martin Anderson moved to Rukon in 2002. And like most residents, he felt the impact of the dark winters and couldn't take it. So he got a grant from the town and started to develop some ideas. Anderson's artistic backgrounds gave him a leg up on his predecessors, inspiring a solution that played with the light on the mountain side, much like a painter's perspective on the canvas. And it just so happened that his ultimate design was exactly what one of the town's founders had imagined over a hundred years ago. A giant sun mirror.

11:18The idea was to bounce the rays from up in the mountains down into the town, but that technology didn't exist in the 1900s. Anderson's modern design had the benefit of new tools. The mirrors were erected in 2013 and amazed residents and tourists. The today show on NBC even did a whole segment on it. The idea was quite simple. Anderson and a team of engineers set up three poles with rectangular mirrored panels on the mountain above the town. Then a computer program rotated the mirrors to follow the sunlight and bounce the solar rays into the town. But still, it wasn't perfect. For starters, winter days still meant less sunshine. Some days only brought two hours of sunlight at best. And second, the sunlight was not all over the city. The mirror only eliminated the small town square. It did make for an amusing community activity though.

12:18For a couple hours every day, the town of about 3,000 people stand together in the light smiling. A coming together for a winter ritual that warms the heart. Our podcast is a co-production of Atlas Obscura and Sirius XM podcasts. The production team for this episode includes Dylan Thurus, Kelly McEvers, Doug Baldinger, Camille Stanley, Manila Morales, Jerome Campbell, Amanda McGowan, Alexa Lynn, Casey Holford, and Luce Fleming.

13:20Our theme music is by Sam Tindall. If you like our show, please give us a good review and rating wherever you get your podcasts. And make sure to follow us so you never miss an episode. I'm Johanna Mayer, I'll see you next time. Sirius XM podcasts. When Team USA steps onto the world stage, we're not just watching. We're cheering together. This winter, we're all on the same team.

14:21Comcast, proud partner of Team USA. Walmart Express Delivery can get what you need delivered in this fast as an hour. Whether it's baby formula when you're down to the last scoop, pet food before the bowl runs empty, batteries for a dead remote, or a last minute gift, it is handled. Try Walmart Express Delivery today and get free delivery with promo code Express. Promotion valid for first Express delivery order, $50 minimum, subject to availability, restrictions apply.