| 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.
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