Visitors to Scottsdale, Arizona are surprised to learn that this "most Western city" has been a population center for less than fifty years. From a small cluster of farmers, this area of more than 130,000 residents has become a full-fledged city. More than that, Scottsdale has become a magnet for vacationers and retirees, offering "big city" attractions amid breath-taking desert surroundings. When architect Frank Lloyd Wright set up his "winter camp" at the foot of the McDowell Mountains in 1937, he was surrounded by desert, far from Phoenix, the state's capital. Today, Taliesin West, as the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation's architectural school was called, is surrounded by the city of Scottsdale, which abuts the city limits of Phoenix and extends out into what was once desert. The climate (average median temperature of 70 degrees F, average of 86 percent sunny days, extremely good visibility and open spaces) made the area an ideal site for an aviation training facility, and in 1942, the Air Corps moved in to help train U.S. pilots in World War II. By 1951, this farming community numbered about 2,000 residents, who elected to incorporate the City of Scottsdale. The City Charter was adopted in 1961, encompassing about one square mile.