Scenic Drive Enhancements

and

Memory Park Project

2009

Friends of the Scenic Drive is working with the City of Scottsdale on enhancements to the Desert Foothills Scenic Drive. In 2000, Scottsdale voters approved $31.5 million to beautify and enhance Scottsdale Road. Approximately $7 million will be spent enhancing the Desert Foothills Scenic Drive, the northernmost section of Scottsdale Road. The illustrations and documents below provide information about the on-going effort by Friends of the Scenic Drive to support implementation of the project, with emphasis on the effort to create a Scenic Drive Memory Park.

Background

The City of Scottsdale's signature road is Scottsdale Road. It stretches from south to north and is 27 miles in length. In recent decades, as Scottsdale has grown, Scottsdale Road has been extended to the north, paved, and widened. Along its northward route, the desert gradually rises to the mountains, creating slightly cooler temperatures and an increasingly lush landscape dotted with saguaro, mesquite, palo verde, and cholla.

Scottsdale Road passes through the length of the City of Scottsdale, connecting Tempe to Carefree and touching Paradise Valley and Phoenix along the way. Because of their varied landscapes and histories, the areas near Scottsdale Road have many memorable stories for tourists and residents to enjoy. 

Before it became Scottsdale, the land was home to the Hohokam and then a Pima village. Later, pioneers grew citrus and cotton in Orangedale, before they changed the name to "Scottsdale." As the community grew, resorts and other businesses were opened to serve visitors to "The West's Most Western Town." Arabian horse farms operated near Bell Road.  Rawhide, "Arizona's Second Most Popular Tourist Attraction" was created at the, then remote, intersection of Pinnacle Peak Road and Scottsdale Road. Further north, locals established the Desert Foothills Scenic Drive to  preserve and showcase "The Most Beautiful Desert in the World." At the northern end of Scottsdale Road,  the Mormon Girl mine once operated on Black Mountain. And, we've only scratched the surface of the colorful history related to Scottsdale's signature road.

Memory Park Project

In 2000, architect Doug Sydnor suggested that Scottsdale create a series of exhibits along Scottsdale Road that commemorated past events. In 2007, Friends of the Scenic Drive, unaware of Sydnor's earlier suggestion, proposed in an Arizona Republic article that a series of "memory parks" be established along Scottsdale Road in convenient and available spaces. The proposed Desert Foothills Scenic Drive Memory Park will provide information about Desert Foothills historic events, places, people, flora, fauna, and preservation efforts in a setting that showcases the Sonoran Desert. 

In January 2009, Friends of the Scenic Drive, retained Sydnor's firm, Douglas Sydnor Architect and Associates, to create conceptual plan for a Desert Foothills Scenic Drive Memory Park. The purpose of this memory park is to capture the history of the Desert Foothills area and celebrate the Sonoran Desert.

In late February 2009, Friends design committee accepted Sydnor's conceptual plans and began the effort of funding the completion of the park. It is the hope of the architect and Friends of the Scenic Drive that the park will provide education and enjoyment for residents, guests at local resorts, and other visitors and lead to the creation of additional memory parks.