This was the year the map stopped moving. The great annexation campaign begun in 1981 wrapped up in 1984, leaving Scottsdale in command of the northern desert it had spent four years collecting — the tracts toward Pinnacle Peak and the McDowell foothills that would define every growth fight for a generation.
If the record shows no single 1984 milestone, the city was hardly idle. Construction was climbing the bajadas at Desert Highlands, the Gainey Ranch and Scottsdale Ranch communities were taking shape, and the two flagship resorts that would remake the hospitality economy were only months from their debuts. Behind the scenes, civic leaders were also deep in the courtship that would eventually land the Mayo Clinic. The quiet before the ribbon-cuttings, in other words — everything 1984 was building opened its doors starting in 1985.