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Era • 1950–1979

Boomtown: Incorporation, the Western Brand, and Thirty Years of Liftoff

From 2,000 people to 88,000 in three decades — while inventing a brand, shutting out new billboards, and beating the Army Corps with grass.

A town, officially
Incorporation (1951), the charter (1961), no new billboards (1962), STEP (1964), Gonzales' Civic Center (1968)
The twin economies
Western tourism (Parada del Sol, Valley Ho, spring training) beside Motorola's electronics payrolls
Designing the boom
STEP citizen planning, the annexation race, McCormick Ranch, and the Greenbelt gamble
Illustration of the Parada del Sol parade on 1950s Scottsdale Road
The Parada del Sol, riding since 1951 and named in 1953: the western brand performed annually at street level. Illustration: Scottsdale.tips.

The boomtown era opens with a petition to exist and closes with a city of 88,000 that had already made its two defining wagers: that a manufactured western identity could power a real economy, and that growth could be designed rather than merely endured.

Incorporation came on June 25, 1951 — about half a square mile, 2,032 people, Malcolm White as mayor, and “The West’s Most Western Town” as the pitch. What followed was the fastest sustained growth in city history: the Parada del Sol (1953), Motorola (its Scottsdale plant in 1957), spring training (1956), the Hotel Valley Ho (1956), a charter (1961), the famous rule against new billboards (1962), the STEP citizen planners (1964), Bennie Gonzales’ Civic Center (1968), the annexation race with Phoenix, McCormick Ranch (1972), and — after the Labor Day flood of 1970 — the Indian Bend Wash Greenbelt, the grass-not-concrete decision that became a national model.

The decades of this era

Chapters in this era

The Hotel Valley Ho, Scottsdale's landmark midcentury modern hotel, opened in 1956
1950s • Pop. 2,032 → 10,026

The West's Most Western Town

A town of 2,000 incorporates, brands itself with a rodeo and a slogan — and ends the decade five times bigger, with a Hollywood hotel and a payroll from Motorola.
The Nuss Building in downtown Scottsdale, dating to 1960, in western storefront style
1960s • Pop. 10,026 → 67,841

The Boom Decade

From 10,000 people to nearly 68,000 in ten years — while the town stops new billboards, asks its residents to plan it, builds an adobe-soft Civic Center, and annexes everything Phoenix can't grab first.
Illustration of the Indian Bend Wash Greenbelt with a lake, bike path, cyclists, and suburban rooftops on both banks
1970s • Pop. 67,823 → about 88,000

The Greenbelt Gamble

The Army Corps wanted a concrete ditch through the middle of town. Scottsdale wanted parks. The parks won — and changed how America does flood control.