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Scottsdale, Arizona, USA
A Romantic Sojourn to Recharge, Refuel and Refresh Your Spirit
Norman2004-08-11 15:29:02
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Our travel mavens informed us that every year millions of visitors are drawn to this oasis in the beautiful Sonoran Desert, reflecting Native Indian, Spanish, and western pioneer cultures. Did we know that it is one of the nation's top 25 art destinations, and was once described by the New York Times as the "Beverly Hills of the Desert?" Pardon our ignorance; we did not even know that it is a city surrounded by marvelous views of the Black Mountain, the McDowell Mountains, the Mummy Mountain and the Camelback Mountain, and where the sun shines more than 300 days a year. Hooked, we set out to discover what we were missing.
Brief History of Scottsdale
Scottsdale's earliest settlers were the skilled Hohokam people, who apparently were descendents from the ancient Mesoamerican cultures (Mayan and Aztec).
From about 300 BC to 1400 A.D. they farmed the area and built some of the most ingenious irrigation canals the world has ever known. The name Hohokam translates as "vanished," unfortunately, they disappeared without a trace.
The Hohokam's unbelievable legacy was in their creation of more than 125 miles (200 km) of canals to provide water for their agricultural needs. In order to maintain their settlements and sustain their crops of corn, beans, squash and cotton, they drew freshwater from the Salt River.
The remnants of this ancient irrigation system were adapted and improved upon in 1868 by the first Anglo company to stake a claim in the Valley of the Sun, when Jack Swilling set up the Swilling Irrigation Canal Co.
Twenty years later Scottsdale's fortunes began to turn sharply upwards, when a U.S. Army Chaplain, Winfield Scott, paid the paltry sum of $2.50 an acre for a 640 stretch of land where the city is now located.
Winfield's brother, George Washington Scott, was the first resident of the town that was then known as Orangedale and later
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See photographs from:
United States Gallery
