Status of Enhancements: April 1998

Date: April 2, 1998

To: Grant Smith, Sonoran News
From: Les Conklin
Subject: New Signs and Exhibit for Scenic Drive

Grant,

You beat me to the punch. I was in the process of writing something on the above relating it to past and future preservation efforts. That will have to wait but here is .information on the latest enhancements. There is also information on our Web site, www.scenicdrive.org including some of the graphics that are used in the plaques. See Critter Guide under About Drive and About Friends.

You may have noticed the new Desert Foothills Scenic Drive Entry signs along Scottsdale Road. The sign on the east side of Scottsdale Road south of Happy Valley Road marks the southern entrance to the Drive. A second sign on the west side of Scottsdale Road just south of Carefree Highway marks the northern entrance. The new Drive Entry signs bears the words, "The Most Beautiful Desert in the World". This is a quote from the original redwood Drive Entry sign that is now preserved at the Cave Creek Museum.

You may also have noticed the a new visitors exhibit located at the Drive Monument sign on the east side of Scottsdale Road just south of Jomax Road. The Drive Monument sign area has been a popular stopping place for tour busses for years. The exhibit was developed to enrich their brief stop in the desert foothills. The new exhibit provides information about the history of the Desert Foothills Scenic Drive and illustrations of 22 native plants and 22 animals. The designs and graphics used in the signs and exhibit were produced by local artists.

Volunteers are also installing new redwood signs identifying plants along the west side of Scottsdale Road. More than 20 species of Sonoran plants are identified on both sides of Scottsdale Road. The installation signs on the west side has been delayed by the project to bury power lines along the Scenic Drive.

These enhancements are the result of an effort to restore, improve and promote the Scenic Drive that began in 1994. The original Monument sign was updated and given a new look in 1995. The effort has been led by a non-profit organization of residents, Friends of the Scenic Drive, and has been supported by many local businesses and the City of Scottsdale. Major sponsors have been Outback Steakhouse, Mac Donald’s Ranch, Del Webb Corporation, Scottsdale Tourism Development Commission, and Scottsdale Neighborhood Enhancement Commission.

The Scenic Drive was originally created in 1963 by the residents of the then tiny community of Cave Creek in 1963 who created and installed redwood plant identification signs along the Drive’s route.

The Drive was the brainchild of Corkie Cockburn. Corkie recalls, "It was a moonlit evening in 1963. My husband and I and another couple were making the lonely, quiet drive home through the tall saguaros and thickets of jumping cholla. We spoke of our fear that the roadside would become lined with gas stations and stores. Creating the drive was our way of preserving the desert along the northern parts of Scottsdale and Cave Creek Roads."

A few years later Maricopa County officially established setbacks along the routes and installed large Drive Monument signs at the entrance to the Drive on Scottsdale and Cave Creek Road. The County also installed bathroom facilities near the Drive Monument sign on Scottsdale Road and there were picnic tables there. The County Planning Department also issued a report which envisioned the Drive linking area area golf courses, parks and the Tonto National Forest.

For more than two decades the plant sites and signs were maintained by volunteer "Plant Parents".

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