The Scottsdale lexicon

Roads · Still in use · 1987

Loop 101, the 61-mile freeway that bends around the Valley and runs up Scottsdale's eastern and northern edges. Locals call it 'the 101,' article included; almost nobody says 'Loop' or 'Pima Freeway' out loud.

Golf · Still in use · 1987

The par-3 16th at TPC Scottsdale's Stadium Course, which the Thunderbirds wrap in grandstands for the WM Phoenix Open: the only fully enclosed hole on the PGA Tour, nicknamed the Coliseum, and the loudest place in golf for four days a year.

Roads · Still in use · 2019

Loop 202, the 78-mile freeway around the east and south of the Phoenix metro in three named pieces: the Red Mountain Freeway along the Salt River, the Santan Freeway through Chandler and Gilbert, and the South Mountain Freeway, finished in 2019. For Scottsdale, the road to the airport.

Roads · Still in use · 2003

State Route 51, the 16.7-mile Piestewa Freeway running north from the Mini Stack near downtown Phoenix through Dreamy Draw to the Loop 101. Scottsdale drivers say 'the 51' and use it to reach central Phoenix. It was the Squaw Peak Parkway until its 2003 renaming.

Civic · Still in use

The volume of water that covers one acre a foot deep: 325,851 gallons, or 43,560 cubic feet. Arizona measures everything from Scottsdale's Colorado River allocation to the state's drought cuts in acre-feet, and one serves about three Valley households for a year.

Architecture · Still in use

Adobe is brick made of earth, water and straw, dried in the sun, and the thick-walled buildings made from it. Burnt adobe is the same brick fired in a kiln. In Scottsdale the word often describes a look more than a material.

Desert · Still in use

A spiny rosette succulent of the Southwest and Mexico that grows for years, sends up one tall flower stalk and dies. Locals call the big gray-blue Agave americana the century plant and treat a blooming stalk in a yard as a neighborhood event.

Places · Still in use · 1963

The 2,600-acre business district around Scottsdale Airport, home to more than 2,500 companies and some 48,000 jobs, the third-largest employment center in Greater Phoenix. 'Working in the Airpark' is the standard North Scottsdale commute, and the name covers the offices, hangars and car dealerships alike.

History · Still in use

The two peoples of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community on Scottsdale's eastern border: the Onk Akimel O'odham, the Salt River People, and the Xalychidom Piipaash, the Upriver People. 'Pima' and 'Maricopa' are outsiders' names that survive in the Community's official title.

Civic · Still in use · 1951

Annexation is how an Arizona city absorbs unincorporated county land, by petition of the property owners rather than a vote. A county island is an unincorporated pocket the city grew around and never took, still governed by Maricopa County.

Roads · Still in use · 1905

State Route 88 from Apache Junction to Roosevelt Dam, a 40-mile road through the Superstitions built to supply the dam's construction. Locals mean the unpaved, cliff-hugging stretch past Tortilla Flat when they say it with a warning in their voice.

Institutions · Still in use · 1955

The Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show, eleven days each February at WestWorld, the largest Arabian horse show in the world and the city's oldest signature event. Locals just say 'the horse show'; there is only one.

Places · Still in use · 1919

The leafy former citrus district at the south foot of Camelback Mountain, between 44th and 68th streets, Camelback Road and the Arizona Canal. Nearly all of it is Phoenix; the strip east of 64th Street is Scottsdale, and the name gets borrowed well beyond both.

Architecture · Still in use · 1970

Arcosanti is the experimental town Paolo Soleri began building in 1970 above the Agua Fria River, about 70 miles north of Phoenix. Arcology, his 1969 word, means architecture and ecology fused: one dense, walkable structure in place of sprawl.

Living · Still in use · 1999

The telephone area code for Scottsdale and the East Valley since the 1999 three-way split of Arizona's original 602. Locals read a 480 number as 'east side'; since the 2023 overlay, a new number can be any of 480, 602 or 623.

Places · Still in use · 1885

The 1885 Salt River Project irrigation canal that runs about four miles across Scottsdale, Pima Road to 64th Street, on its way from Granite Reef to Peoria. When a local says 'the canal,' this is it: the Waterfront, the Soleri Bridge and the bike path all sit on it.

Institutions · Still in use · 1992

Major League Baseball's own autumn development league: six teams of top prospects playing about 30 games each from early October to mid-November in Cactus League parks. Locals say 'Fall League' or 'the AFL' and mean cheap, quiet, serious baseball at Scottsdale Stadium.

History · Faded · 1863

The federal territory that governed Arizona from February 24, 1863, to statehood on February 14, 1912. Scottsdale spent its first 24 years inside it. Locals meet the word as 'Territorial,' on a gallery sign, a house style or a historic plaque, meaning 'before statehood.'

Living · Still in use · 1968

Mountain Standard Time all year, because Arizona opted out of daylight saving time in 1968. In winter Scottsdale matches Denver; in summer it matches Los Angeles. The Navajo Nation, which observes DST, is the one exception inside the state.

Food · Still in use · 1973

Wine from grapes grown in Arizona, almost all of it in three federally recognized high-elevation regions: Sonoita, Willcox and the Verde Valley. In Scottsdale it mostly means the Old Town tasting rooms and the all-Arizona lists that pour it.

Institutions · Still in use · 1975

The free Thursday-evening open house of Old Town's galleries, 7 to 9 p.m. along Main Street and Marshall Way, run by the Scottsdale Gallery Association since 1975. 'Thursday is ArtWalk' is a standing fact of the downtown week, and 'Gold Palette' means the themed, bigger version.

Institutions · Still in use · 1885

Arizona State University, the Tempe school just across the Salt River that enrolled more than 200,000 students in 2025-26 and runs SkySong at Scottsdale and McDowell Roads. 'ASU' is the university; 'the Sun Devils' is its teams; 'Tempe' on a fall Saturday means the game.

Living · Argued over · 2016

The spring and fall months when matching-shirt groups fill Old Town's bar grid, pool decks and rental houses. Locals use it with a sigh or a cash register: Scottsdale ranks second nationally for bachelorette parties, and the party economy drives the city's fight over short-term rentals.

Institutions · Still in use · 1999

Banner Health, the Phoenix-based nonprofit that is Arizona's largest private employer and biggest hospital system. 'Go to Banner' means one of its 30-plus hospitals, almost none of them in Scottsdale, which is why locals here say 'Osborn' or 'Shea' instead.

Desert · Still in use

Centruroides sculpturatus, the small, pale, climbing scorpion that lives in Scottsdale walls and yards and is the only one of Arizona's dozens of species with a medically significant sting. When a local says 'scorpion,' this is the one they mean.

Desert · Still in use

The squat, ribbed, heavily spined cactus that stands knee to chest high and leans toward the sun, which is why locals call it the compass cactus. Two species grow here; neither holds drinkable water, whatever the movies say.

Institutions · Still in use · 1971

The collector-car auction company founded in Scottsdale in 1971 by Tom Barrett and Russ Jackson, and the nine-day January sale it runs at WestWorld. Locals use the name for the event, the week and the traffic: 'it's Barrett-Jackson' explains a full hotel and a slow Loop 101.

Civic · Still in use · 2010

Scottsdale's 5% transient lodging tax on hotel and short-term stays of 29 days or less, on top of sales tax. Half funds destination marketing through Experience Scottsdale and half funds tourism events, research and capital projects, together the Tourism Development Fund.

Roads · Still in use · 1958

The Beeline Highway, State Route 87, the four-lane road from the edge of Mesa northeast past Fort McDowell and through the Tonto National Forest to Payson. In the Valley it means the way out of summer: 'take the Beeline up to the Rim.'

Outdoors · Still in use

The two saddles in the southern McDowells, about 3,200 and 3,030 feet, that the Preserve's hardest standard hike crosses from the Gateway Trailhead. 'Doing Bell-Windgate' means the full 9.5-mile, 2,000-foot loop.

Roads · Still in use · 1994

The 17000 North arterial. West of Scottsdale Road it is Bell Road, a 34-mile Valley workhorse named for a farmer; east of it, inside Scottsdale, it is Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard, a 3.5-mile landscaped road to Taliesin West.

Institutions · Still in use · 1972

The Thunderbirds' after-hours concert tent at the WM Phoenix Open, a four-night, 21-and-over venue near the TPC Scottsdale entrance. 'Going to the Birds Nest' means the night shift of tournament week, with or without the golf.

Living · Still in use · 1944

The six-foot-or-so fence of gray concrete masonry units that encloses nearly every Valley backyard. Locals say 'block wall' for the thing itself and for the whole way of living behind it: private, shaded, scorpion-proof in theory, coyote-proof in nobody's experience.

Desert · Still in use

Two native cats on two scales: the bobcat, a 15 to 30 pound spotted cat with a stub tail that lives in Scottsdale neighborhoods, and the mountain lion, a 75 to 150 pound tawny cat with a long tail that passes through the McDowells and is almost never seen.

Civic · Still in use

A vote on whether the city may sell general obligation bonds, long-term debt repaid from property taxes, to build parks, fire stations, roads and other projects. In Scottsdale 'the bond' usually means the $319 million package voters approved in November 2019.

Desert · Still in use

A rounded, silver-gray desert shrub, Encelia farinosa, that covers Sonoran hillsides with yellow daisies from March into May. Locals use the name for the yellow on the hills in spring, and old-timers know its resin as incienso.

Places · Still in use · 1897

The north-south street one block east of Scottsdale Road where Old Town's genuine 1920s buildings stand: the blacksmith shop, the first post office, the adobe mission. Named for E.O. Brown, who ran the general store at Brown and Main from 1904 and the cattle ranch that became DC Ranch.

Outdoors · Still in use · 1916

The northern half of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, named for the cattle ranch Scottsdale merchant E.O. Brown pushed into the desert in 1916. Today it means the trailhead at 30301 N. Alma School Parkway and the flat, saguaro-dense trails behind it.

Travel · Still in use · 1898

A curtained, shaded shelter beside a pool, rented by the day with seating, service and usually a food and drink minimum. In Scottsdale the word is shorthand for the day-club economy: book the cabana, split the minimum, keep the shade.

Institutions · Still in use · 1947

Major League Baseball's Arizona spring-training circuit: fifteen teams in ten Valley ballparks every March, against Florida's Grapefruit League. In Scottsdale it means the Giants at Scottsdale Stadium and the D-backs and Rockies at Salt River Fields; 'Cactus League' and 'spring training' are used interchangeably.

Living · Still in use

A layer of desert soil cemented into near-rock by calcium carbonate, lying anywhere from inches to several feet down. Locals mean the stuff that stops the shovel: if a nursery tells you to rent a jackhammer to plant a tree, this is why.

Places · Still in use · 1985

Phoenix's prestige business strip along Camelback Road, centered on 24th Street and the Biltmore. Scottsdale people stretch the name east to the resorts on Camelback Road and Lincoln Drive under the mountain, most of which are in Paradise Valley.

Places · Still in use · 1968

The 2,704-foot red-and-gray mountain shaped like a kneeling camel that anchors every Scottsdale view west. It is a Phoenix city park on the Paradise Valley line, with two summit trails, Echo Canyon and Cholla, and more rescues than any other hill in Arizona.

Roads · Still in use · 1961

The 5000 North arterial, named for Camelback Mountain, running 33 miles from Scottsdale west to Litchfield Park. In Scottsdale it means the stretch past Fashion Square and the resorts at the foot of the mountain.

Institutions · Still in use · 2012

Scottsdale Public Art's free, ten-night festival of large-scale light art installed in, over and beside the Arizona Canal at the Scottsdale Waterfront each November. Locals shorten it to 'Canal' ('are you going to Canal this year?') and treat it as the unofficial opening of the holiday season.

Civic · Still in use · 1973

The Central Arizona Project, the 336-mile canal that lifts Colorado River water from Lake Havasu across the desert to Phoenix and Tucson. In Scottsdale 'the CAP' means the open concrete canal across the north end of the city and the water, about two-thirds of the city's supply, that it carries.

Living · Still in use

The Scottsdale fact that you drive everywhere: a 31-mile-long city on a mile grid, a summer that forbids walking and a transit map with no light rail. Locals mean both the habit and the industry, from the old Motor Mile to the January auctions.

Institutions · Still in use · 1988

The Arizona Cardinals are the Valley's NFL team, in Arizona since 1988 and in Glendale since 2006. The Arizona Coyotes were its NHL team from 1996 until April 2024, when the franchise was deactivated and its players moved to Utah.

Roads · Still in use · 1964

The east-west road that marks Scottsdale's northern edge, running from Lake Pleasant Parkway in Peoria east to Scottsdale Road at the Carefree town line. West of I-17 it is State Route 74. Gordon Lightfoot saw the sign and wrote the song.

Food · Still in use

Carne asada is thin beef grilled over fire, usually mesquite, and chopped into flour tortillas. In Arizona it stands for the whole Sonoran kitchen: beef, big thin flour tortillas, beans and green chile, the food of the Mexican state next door.

Golf · Still in use · 1932

A course condition that keeps golf carts on the paved path instead of the fairway, usually after rain, frost or overseeding. Around here it also names a culture: in the golf communities the cart is a second car, and Arizona law lets it onto the street.

Institutions · Still in use · 1998

The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community's casino at the northeast corner of McKellips Road and the Loop 101, open since August 1998 and the first of the Community's two gaming halls. Locals say 'Casino Arizona' for the McKellips building and 'Talking Stick' for the resort tower up the freeway.

Architecture · Still in use

Spanish for 'little house.' In Scottsdale it means three things: a freestanding resort room, a backyard guest house, and, in planning language, an accessory dwelling unit. On a listing it usually means a detached room with a bath, and sometimes a kitchen.

Places · Still in use · 1937

The 1937 homestead beside the Arizona Canal on McDonald Drive that George and Rachael Ellis turned into a working artists' colony, still owned by the family and still full of studios. The name is the lane's: cowboys drove cattle along the canal bank here before anyone built.

Places · Still in use · 1967

The two lakes at the heart of the Indian Bend Wash Greenbelt: Chaparral Lake at Hayden and McDonald, filled in 1973, and the ponds at Eldorado Park on Miller Road, stocked since 1967. 'The lakes' means these, flood-control basins where south and central Scottsdale fish, walk dogs and feed ducks.

Institutions · Still in use · 1961

The Scottsdale Charros, a club of local businessmen founded in 1961 to host spring training at Scottsdale Stadium, who give the proceeds to schools and charities and have run the Parada del Sol parade since 2021. Locals say 'a Charro' the way Phoenix says 'a Thunderbird.'

Civic · Still in use · 1961

A charter city governs itself under a local constitution its voters approved, rather than only the powers state statutes list. Scottsdale became one on October 31, 1961. 'Home rule' is the independence that charter brings over purely local affairs, an independence the state can still override.

Food · Argued over · 1946

A burrito, usually machaca or shredded beef, that has been deep-fried until the flour tortilla blisters, served with sour cream and guacamole. Arizona's signature Mexican-American dish, with a disputed origin shared between Tucson and Phoenix.

Desert · Still in use

Any of the shrubby, jointed cylinder cacti, genus Cylindropuntia, pronounced CHOY-uh. Locals mostly mean the fuzzy-looking teddy bear cholla and the jumping cholla, whose barbed segments break off at a touch and ride away on your leg.

Places · Faded · 1968

The lawns, fountains and sculpture garden around City Hall and the Civic Center Library in Old Town. A mall in the National Mall sense, not the shopping sense. The city now calls it Scottsdale Civic Center; longtime locals still say 'the Mall.'

Civic · Still in use · 2021

The federal shortage declared on the Colorado River when Lake Mead falls below set elevations. 'Tier 1' (below 1,075 feet) and 'Tier 2' are the levels of cut; Arizona has been in shortage every year since 2022, and Scottsdale's drought plan is keyed to it.

Architecture · Still in use · 1956

Paolo Soleri's studio, home and bell foundry on Doubletree Ranch Road in Paradise Valley, where bronze and ceramic windbells are still cast. Say 'Cosanti' and a local hears a bell: the word names the place and the chimes hanging on half the patios in the Valley.

Civic · Still in use · 1908

The form of city government Scottsdale's 1961 charter set up: an elected mayor and six council members make policy, and a professional city manager they hire and can fire runs the departments. Locals mostly meet it as 'the manager's office' or 'staff.'

Food · Faded · 1957

A Western-themed dinner house, usually out in the desert, where steaks were broiled over mesquite and served with beans on tin plates to crowds in paper bibs. Scottsdale had a whole belt of them near Pinnacle Peak; the last closed in 2015.

Desert · Still in use

The wild canine, Canis latrans, that lives in every corner of the Valley, from the Preserve to the Greenbelt golf courses. Locals hear them at night, guard their cats and small dogs from them, and say the name in two syllables or three.

Places · Still in use · 1955

A short street off Fifth Avenue in Old Town, and the 1955 courtyard of studio-shops at its corner, built for the artisans who made Scottsdale an arts colony. Locals use it for the street, the complex and the little dining enclave around it.

Desert · Still in use

Larrea tridentata, the olive-green, small-leaved shrub that covers more of the desert than any other plant. Its resin is what the desert smells like after rain, and ranchers and old Scottsdale call it greasewood.

Places · Still in use · 1913

The short Salt River Project canal that carries water south from the Arizona Canal to the Grand Canal along Scottsdale's western edge, through Papago Park. Locals mostly mean its paved path, the bike route to Tempe.

Food · Still in use · 1930

A thick milkshake made with pitted dates, usually Medjools, blended into vanilla ice cream or milk. Born at a roadside date stand in California's Coachella Valley, it is now the thing you order at Sphinx Date Co. in Scottsdale as a matter of principle.

Travel · Still in use

A ticket to a resort's pool, and sometimes its spa or gym, for one day without an overnight stay. Sold by the resorts and by apps such as ResortPass, it is how Scottsdale locals spend July afternoons.

Places · Still in use · 1997

The master-planned community on the McDowell Mountains' west slope along Pima Road and Thompson Peak Parkway, opened in 1997 with Market Street as its village center. The name is an 1885 cattle brand whose letters have been read four or five ways.

Institutions · Still in use · 1939

The 140-acre museum of desert plants in Papago Park, founded in 1939 by the Arizona Cactus and Native Flora Society and technically in Phoenix. Scottsdale people say 'the Garden' or 'DBG' and claim it, because it sits at the city's southwest corner and is where they take every visitor.

Golf · Still in use · 1983

Golf laid through native desert instead of over it: islands of turf between cactus, rock and wash, so a ball off the grass is usually gone. Also called target golf. Scottsdale's version began at Desert Highlands in 1983 and became the city's signature product.

Architecture · Still in use · 1984

The modernist architecture of roughly 1945 to the mid-1970s, adapted to the Sonoran sun: low flat or shallow roofs, deep overhangs, block screens, glass walls facing shade. In Scottsdale it means the Valley Ho, Haver tract homes and the people restoring them.

Places · Still in use · 1986

The private, gated golf club community at the far north end of Scottsdale, founded by Lyle Anderson in 1986 on about 8,300 acres. Locals use the name for the club, the homes inside it and, loosely, the whole high-desert golf belt up there.

Desert · Still in use

The Sonoran desert tortoise, Gopherus morafkai, a slow, long-lived land turtle of rocky desert slopes, protected in the wild. Locals meet it two ways: rarely on a monsoon-season trail, and often in a neighbor's backyard, adopted from the state.

History · Still in use

Desert varnish is the dark, glossy coating of clay, manganese and iron that builds on exposed desert rock over thousands of years. Petroglyphs are the designs ancient people pecked through it to expose the lighter stone beneath, and the McDowells are full of both.

Institutions · Still in use · 1998

The Arizona Diamondbacks, Major League Baseball's Phoenix franchise, playing at Chase Field downtown since 1998 and training each spring at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, on Community land beside Scottsdale. Everyone says D-backs; nobody says Diamondbacks twice.

Roads · Still in use

The east-west road through the middle of McCormick Ranch, from Scottsdale Road past the Grand Hyatt and Rotary Park to the Loop 101. Named for a ranch whose story has not survived; the hotel chain of the same name is a coincidence.

History · Faded · 1926

A working-looking ranch that took paying guests, fed them cookouts and put them on horses. From the 1920s to the 1950s dude ranches and guest inns were Scottsdale's cash economy, and 'guest ranch' is the politer name that outlived the dude.

Weather · Still in use

Any wind event that lifts enough dust to wreck visibility, from a monsoon haboob to a dry spring gale over farm fields. In Arizona the word comes attached to a driving rule: pull aside, stay alive.

Roads · Still in use

The east-west road across the top of Scottsdale, from Scottsdale Road past Pima Road and the Preserve trailheads to 136th Street, where it becomes Rio Verde Drive and runs on to Rio Verde. Why it is called Dynamite, nobody has shown.

Places · Argued over · 1982

The suburbs east and southeast of Phoenix: Mesa, Tempe, Chandler, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Apache Junction and their neighbors. Whether Scottsdale counts depends on who is drawing the map; many residents of north Scottsdale would rather not be asked.

Outdoors · Still in use

The two trails up Camelback Mountain, both in Phoenix: Echo Canyon, the short, steep west-side scramble with handrails, and Cholla, the longer east-side ridge walk with a boulder finish. Locals use the pair as shorthand for 'which way up.'

Places · Faded · 2007

What Scottsdale's Mexican-American families called their home neighborhood east of Brown Avenue, the barrio cleared for the Civic Center expansion in the early 1970s. Its origin is unconfirmed; it may simply be Scottsdale as Spanish speakers said it.

Weather · Still in use

The National Weather Service's top heat alert, issued when forecast heat threatens much of the population. Renamed Extreme Heat Warning in March 2025, though most locals still say 'excessive' out of habit.

Institutions · Still in use · 2001

Scottsdale's destination marketing organization: a private nonprofit, formerly the Scottsdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, that holds the city's contract to sell Scottsdale to tourists and meeting planners and is paid with half of the city's hotel bed tax. Locals still say 'the CVB.'

Places · Still in use · 1961

Scottsdale Fashion Square, the enclosed luxury mall at Scottsdale Road and Camelback Road. Locals drop the 'Scottsdale' and often just say 'the mall'; there is only one they mean.

Places · Still in use · 1950

The curving shopping street between Scottsdale Road and the Arizona Canal, lined with 1950s crafts shops and their successors. Locals say 'Fifth Avenue' with none of the New York irony it started with.

Weather · Still in use

The day each spring when Sky Harbor's official thermometer first reaches 100 degrees, on average around May 2. Locals treat it as a holiday of dread, and the 110-degree days of June through August as the real test.

History · Faded · 1912

Copper, cattle, cotton, citrus and climate: the five industries Arizona schoolchildren were taught built the state. Scottsdale had four of them. The phrase survives as a civics mnemonic long after three of the five shrank to less than one percent of the economy.

Weather · Still in use

A flood that rises within minutes to a few hours of heavy rain, usually in a wash or a road dip that was bone dry an hour earlier. In Arizona it is the second-deadliest weather hazard, and most victims are in cars.

Living · Still in use · 1903

Raw Salt River Project canal water delivered on a schedule to a yard ringed with low earth berms, where it stands a few inches deep and soaks in. A right attached to the land, not the owner, that explains the big lawns and old citrus of Arcadia.

History · Still in use · 1865

The name of an 1865 Army post on the Verde River and, since 1903, of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation that holds its land northeast of Fountain Hills. Locals say 'Fort McDowell' for the Nation, its casino or the turnoff on the Beeline; 'Camp McDowell' is the post's original name.

Places · Still in use · 1984

The four-summited mountain 40 miles east of Phoenix that fills the eastern horizon from Scottsdale, the highest ground in Maricopa County. Locals use it for the peaks, the Tonto wilderness around them and, just as often, the Tempe brewery named after them.

Institutions · Still in use · 1998

Sam Fox's Phoenix-based restaurant group, founded in Tucson in 1998, that launched North Italia, True Food Kitchen, Culinary Dropout and Flower Child, several of them first in Scottsdale. 'A Fox place' means a polished, design-heavy, reliably crowded restaurant with a one-word concept name and a long patio.

Weather · Still in use

The National Weather Service's notice that temperatures at or below 32 degrees are expected, which in the Valley sends residents outside to drape citrus, bougainvillea and lantana in frost cloth. First frost runs late November to mid-December; central Phoenix sometimes never freezes.

Food · Argued over · 1864

A flat round of dough fried in lard or oil until puffed and golden, served plain with honey, or topped with beans, meat, lettuce and cheese as a Navajo taco. A Native staple with a painful origin and a long argument attached.

Places · Still in use · 1980

The gated golf community, resort and shopping strip at Scottsdale Road and Doubletree Ranch Road, built in the 1980s on Daniel C. Gainey's Arabian horse ranch. Locals say 'Gainey' and mean the whole corner, resort and restaurants included.

Desert · Still in use

The two birds every Scottsdale resident learns first: Gambel's quail, plump ground birds with a bobbing black topknot that march their chicks single file, and the cactus wren, the loud, speckled state bird that nests inside cholla.

Outdoors · Still in use · 2009

The roughly 4.4-mile loop trail behind the Gateway Trailhead on Thompson Peak Parkway, the McDowell Sonoran Preserve's main entrance. Locals say 'Gateway' for the trailhead, the loop and the first hike they give every visitor.

Civic · Still in use · 1967

Scottsdale's long-range land-use and growth policy, required by Arizona law and ratified by city voters. The current one is General Plan 2035. Locals invoke it in zoning fights: a project either 'fits the General Plan' or needs an amendment.

Institutions · Still in use · 1984

The San Francisco Giants, who have held spring training at Scottsdale Stadium in Old Town since 1984 and in Arizona since 1947. In Scottsdale 'the Giants' means March: the team, the ballpark two blocks from the bars, and the fans who fly in with them.

Desert · Still in use

Heloderma suspectum, the beaded orange-and-black venomous lizard of the Sonoran Desert, pronounced HEE-luh monster. Locals say the name with affection: it is slow, rarely seen, protected by state law and the source of a diabetes drug.

Civic · Still in use · 1859

A sovereign nation of the Akimel O'otham and Pee Posh peoples south of Phoenix, on a reservation set aside in 1859. Locals know it through Wild Horse Pass, its casinos and the Rawhide they used to visit in Scottsdale.

Roads · Still in use · 1991

The one-way pair that loops around downtown Scottsdale: Drinkwater Boulevard on the east, northbound, and Goldwater Boulevard on the west, southbound. Named for Mayor Herb Drinkwater and Senator Barry Goldwater after their deaths in 1997 and 1998.

Places · Still in use

The narrow waist of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, crossed by Rio Verde Drive and 128th Street, that links the Preserve's northern desert to its mountains. Biologists treat it as the Preserve's critical wildlife corridor; hikers know it as the Gooseneck Trail.

Outdoors · Still in use

A low, boulder-heaped peak in the far northeast corner of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, and the trailhead on 136th Street named for it. Locals use it to mean the quiet end of the Preserve: long, flat loops and very few cars.

Places · Still in use · 1908

The low concrete diversion dam on the Salt River, four miles below its meeting with the Verde, that sends almost the whole river into the Arizona Canal and the South Canal. Locals say 'Granite Reef' for the dam, the recreation site beside it and the point where the river ends.

Places · Still in use · 1994

The 1,615-acre master-planned community and public golf club around Thompson Peak Parkway between Scottsdale Road and Pima Road, built from the mid-1990s. Locals use 'Grayhawk' for the neighborhood, the golf club and the clubhouse patios interchangeably.

Food · Still in use · 1996

Green chile and red chile are the same New Mexico pepper, picked green and roasted or left to ripen red and dried. 'Red or green?' is how you are asked which sauce you want; 'Christmas' means both. Hatch is the valley that grows the famous ones.

Places · Still in use · 1964

The eleven miles of parks, lakes, paths and golf courses along Indian Bend Wash that double as Scottsdale's flood channel, from Tempe's border north past Shea. Locals also say 'the Wash'; either way it is where the city bikes, walks dogs and, a few days a year, watches floods.

Travel · Still in use

The Phoenix-area address system Scottsdale shares: numbers count out from Central Avenue and Washington Street in downtown Phoenix, arterial roads sit a mile apart, and an address like 7200 East tells you how far east you are.

Civic · Still in use · 1980

Arizona's 1980 law that put the state in charge of groundwater pumping around Phoenix and made new subdivisions prove a 100-year water supply. Locals shorten it to 'the 100-year rule' and invoke it whenever growth, wells or Rio Verde come up.

Weather · Argued over · 1972

A wall of dust, often a mile high, pushed ahead of a collapsing summer thunderstorm. Meteorologists and most locals say haboob; a stubborn minority insists on 'dust storm' and writes letters about it.

Architecture · Still in use

A large estate in the Spanish-speaking world, and the main house on it. In Scottsdale it is mostly a style and a sales word: thick stucco walls, a courtyard, heavy beams and tile, on resorts, restaurants and 'hacienda-style' homes.

Food · Still in use · 1913

In Scottsdale, happy hour is a weekday afternoon window, usually three to six, when restaurants sell a discounted bar menu on the patio and at the bar. Locals treat it as a way of life; the city's restaurants are priced for visitors.

Desert · Still in use

A dark, chestnut-shouldered hawk of the Sonoran Desert that lives and hunts in family groups, the only common raptor here that does. Locals point them out on light poles and saguaro arms, usually two or three at a time.

Institutions · Still in use · 1958

The Hashknife Pony Express, the Navajo County Sheriff's Posse riders who carry about 20,000 letters 200 miles from Holbrook to Scottsdale each winter under Postal Service sanction. 'The Hashknife is in' means Western Week has started. The name is an 1880s cattle brand shaped like a cook's hash knife.

Roads · Still in use · 1888

The north-south arterial a mile east of Scottsdale Road, on the 8000 East line, running from McKellips Road up through the Greenbelt and McCormick Ranch to Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard and TPC Scottsdale. Named for the Wilfred Hayden farm family, not for Tempe's Haydens.

History · Faded · 1888

A health seeker was a person, usually with tuberculosis or asthma, who came to the Arizona desert for the dry air before antibiotics existed. From the 1890s to the 1930s they were Scottsdale's steadiest source of newcomers and money, and several of the town's founders were among them.

Institutions · Still in use · 1929

The Phoenix museum of American Indian art and culture that Dwight and Maie Heard founded in 1929 on Central Avenue. Locals say 'the Heard' and mean the Valley's one indispensable museum; Scottsdale, which sells Native art by the gallery-full, sends visitors there to learn what they are buying.

Outdoors · Still in use · 2021

The City of Phoenix's practice of closing its most-rescued summit trails from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. whenever the National Weather Service issues an Extreme Heat Warning. Scottsdale has no equivalent; its Preserve stays open and relies on guidance.

Travel · Still in use

The three-part rate calendar of Scottsdale's resorts. High season is roughly January to mid-April, the shoulders are late fall and late spring, and low season is the summer heat, when the same rooms sell for half or less.

Living · Argued over · 1994

A homeowners association: the private corporation every owner in a planned community must join and pay, which enforces the recorded CC&Rs on paint, parking, plants and rentals. In Scottsdale it governs nearly every subdivision north of McCormick Ranch and few of the older ones south.

History · Argued over

The archaeological name for the people who farmed the Salt and Gila valleys with hundreds of miles of canals from roughly 300 to 1450 CE. It comes from the O'odham word huhugam, the ancestors, and their descendants, the Akimel O'odham and Piipaash, live along Scottsdale's eastern edge.

Places · Still in use · 1914

The small red butte in Papago Park whose top is pierced by a natural opening you can climb into and look west through. Locals say it for the butte, the 0.2-mile path up it and the sunset ritual it hosts.

History · Faded · 1877

The 1877 federal law that let a settler claim up to 640 acres of arid public land cheaply if they irrigated it within three years. Winfield Scott claimed Scottsdale's founding section under it in 1888. Locals call it his 'homestead,' which is not the legal term.

Institutions · Still in use · 2015

The nonprofit hospital system that runs Scottsdale's three hospitals, Osborn, Shea and Thompson Peak, plus six more across the Valley. It was Scottsdale Memorial, then Scottsdale Healthcare, then merged with John C. Lincoln in 2013 and took the HonorHealth name in 2015. Locals still say 'Osborn' or 'Shea.'

Institutions · Faded · 1958

The Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce's welcoming committee of high school girls, who greeted conventions, marched in Parada del Sol and escorted celebrities from the late 1950s into the early 1980s. The name was revived in 2017 for Western Week's official ambassadors.

Roads · Still in use · 1891

The 4100 North arterial that runs 41 miles across the Valley and through the middle of Old Town Scottsdale. It is named for the Phoenix Indian School, the federal boarding school for Native children that operated at Central Avenue from 1891 to 1990.

Civic · Still in use · 1912

Arizona's three tools for going around elected officials, in the constitution since 1912: the initiative writes a law, the referendum vetoes one and the recall removes an officer. In Scottsdale they run through the City Clerk, and lately 'the referendum' means Axon.

Desert · Still in use

The desert ironwood, Olneya tesota, a gray-barked, wide-crowned tree with wood dense enough to sink and a lifespan measured in centuries. In Scottsdale the word also names a park, a neighborhood and half the streets north of the 101.

Weather · Still in use

The stock Arizona defense of summer, and the stock joke about it: low humidity lets sweat evaporate, so 110 here feels less oppressive than 95 in Houston. Locals say it sincerely to visitors in June and sarcastically to each other in July.

Institutions · Still in use

The two honors Scottsdale restaurants put on the door. The James Beard Awards, given since the 1990s to Arizona chefs in the Best Chef: Southwest category, and the Michelin Guide, which first rated Arizona in August 2026 and awarded Bib Gourmands and recommendations but no stars.

Desert · Still in use

The collared peccary, a 40 to 60 pound hoofed animal that travels in herds of a handful to twenty, eats prickly pear and garden drip lines, and is not a pig. Locals say it with a shrug; newcomers say it with alarm.

Roads · Still in use · 1950

The east-west road across north Scottsdale between Happy Valley Road and Dynamite, named around 1950 by Fitz Durham for his wife Maxine and his sister Josephine. It is where the 1964 Scottsdale-Phoenix boundary agreement ran out, and the road to DC Ranch.

Places · Still in use · 1991

The resort, golf course and open-air shopping district at Scottsdale Road and Greenway Parkway, straddling the Phoenix line. Kierland Commons is the shopping center; 'Kierland' is the neighborhood, and most of it is technically Phoenix.

Civic · Still in use · 1968

City Hall's round, sunken council chamber, where the Scottsdale City Council meets and residents line up to speak. 'At the Kiva' means at a council meeting; 'the Kiva crowd' means the regulars who never miss one.

Roads · Still in use · 1936

The two east-west roads through Paradise Valley's resort corridor at the foot of Camelback and Mummy Mountains. Lincoln Drive, named for industrialist John C. Lincoln, carries the Camelback Inn and Mountain Shadows; McDonald Drive, a mile south, has the Echo Canyon trailhead.

Outdoors · Still in use · 2006

A wash draining the southern McDowells above Via Linda, and the Preserve trailhead named for it at 12601 N. 124th Street. Locals use it for the easy, family-friendly side of the range and the walk to the Taliesin Overlook.

Outdoors · Still in use · 2005

A prehistoric rock avalanche off the eastern McDowell Mountains, roughly half a million years old, and the flat interpretive trail out of Tom's Thumb Trailhead that crosses it. Locals use the name for both the slide and the easy hike.

Places · Still in use · 1925

The north-south street through downtown Scottsdale's arts district, from Indian School Road to the Arizona Canal, lined with galleries and anchored by Western Spirit. Named for Vice President Thomas R. Marshall, who wintered in Scottsdale from 1914.

Institutions · Still in use · 1987

Mayo Clinic in Arizona, almost always shortened to 'Mayo.' It opened as a clinic on East Shea Boulevard in Scottsdale in 1987; its hospital opened in north Phoenix in 1998. 'Going to Mayo' can mean either campus, so ask which one.

Places · Still in use · 1970

The master-planned community of lakes, golf courses and curving streets between Indian Bend Road and Shea Boulevard, built from 1971 on the McCormicks' cattle and Arabian horse ranch. Locals say 'the Ranch' and mean this one, not DC.

Places · Still in use · 1995

The master-planned community of about 3,200 acres against the west face of the McDowell Mountains, south of DC Ranch, built from 1995. Locals say 'MMR' and mean the neighborhoods, the city park with the lazy river and the trailheads above them.

Places · Faded

The federally named gap a few miles south of Fountain Hills where the Beeline Highway (State Route 87) crosses between Red Mountain and the Fountain Hills side of the McDowells, on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. Almost nobody calls it anything.

Roads · Still in use · 1865

The 1600 North arterial that runs the length of the Valley and forms south Scottsdale's main street for three miles, from Papago Park to Pima Road. Named for Fort McDowell, the 1865 Army post on the Verde River it once led toward, and so for General Irvin McDowell.

Places · Still in use · 1865

The McDowell Mountains, the roughly 25-mile range on Scottsdale's northeast edge between the city and Fountain Hills, topped by East End at 4,069 feet. Most of the Scottsdale side is now the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. Locals just say 'the McDowells.'

Desert · Still in use

A mesa is a broad, flat-topped hill with steep sides; a butte is the same thing shrunk by erosion until it is taller than it is wide. Around Scottsdale the words mostly point at Papago Park and Red Mountain, since the McDowells are neither.

Travel · Still in use · 1994

Mesa Gateway Airport (AZA), the East Valley's second commercial airport on the former Williams Air Force Base, served mainly by Allegiant. Scottsdale locals call it Gateway, Mesa Gateway, or by its old name, Phoenix-Mesa Gateway.

Desert · Still in use

The velvet mesquite, a thorny, deep-rooted legume tree of desert washes with sweet bean pods and dark, dense wood. Locals mean the tree, the shade, the flour and the grilling wood by the same word, and they say it mess-KEET.

Food · Still in use

Cooking over the wood or charcoal of the mesquite tree, the Sonoran Desert's most common hardwood, which burns hot and leaves a strong, sweet smoke. 'Mesquite-broiled' on an Arizona menu is a promise about flavor and a nod to the cowboy steakhouse tradition.

Institutions · Still in use · 2010

The Musical Instrument Museum, a global museum of musical instruments that opened in north Phoenix in April 2010, a short drive west of Scottsdale's Airpark. Locals call it 'the MIM' and put it at the top of the list for out-of-town guests and 115-degree afternoons.

Places · Still in use

The 200-mile cliff edge of the Colorado Plateau that runs across central Arizona above Payson, where the pines start and the temperature drops 25 degrees. Valley people say 'the Rim' or 'Rim Country' and mean the summer escape, not the geology.

Weather · Still in use · 2008

Arizona's summer storm season, officially June 15 to September 30, when moist air from the Gulf of California turns afternoons into dust walls, lightning and flash floods. It is a season, not a storm; locals use the word for both anyway.

Places · Faded · 1996

The stretch of McDowell Road in south Scottsdale that held some 32 car brands from the mid-1960s to about 2010. Twenty dealers branded it the Motor Mile in 1996; today locals use the name for what used to be there.

Places · Still in use · 1940

The 2,260-foot peak at the center of the Town of Paradise Valley, north of Camelback Mountain, ringed by estates and the Camelback Inn. Locals use it as a landmark and a real-estate address; there is no public trail, and the summit land is held in trust against one.

Weather · Still in use

A day on which Maricopa County bans wood fires in fireplaces, chimineas and fire pits because forecast pollution is high. Declared by the county Air Quality Department, mostly from November to February, and announced the day before.

Nicknames · Still in use

The everyday division of a 31-mile-long city into two halves. 'North Scottsdale' means the newer, richer desert north of Shea Boulevard; 'South Scottsdale' means the postwar grid between Old Town and Tempe. The line moves depending on who is selling what.

Desert · Still in use

A fan of gray, thorny canes up to 15 feet tall that leafs out green within days of a rain and goes bare again when the soil dries, several times a year. Not a cactus, not dead, and the red spring flowers are the hummingbirds' first stop.

Institutions · Still in use · 2013

The aquarium and the butterfly conservatory side by side at the Arizona Boardwalk, on Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community land beside the Loop 101. Butterfly Wonderland opened in 2013 and OdySea Aquarium in 2016; locals say 'OdySea' for the aquarium and, often, for the whole complex.

Places · Argued over · 2018

Officially, all of downtown Scottsdale is now 'Old Town.' To longtime locals Old Town is only the few blocks of 1920s storefronts on Main and Brown, and calling the Waterfront or the bar district 'Old Town' marks you as new.

Golf · Still in use

Seeding cool-season ryegrass into warm-season bermudagrass each fall so that turf stays green through winter, when bermuda goes dormant and brown. Scottsdale's golf courses do it in October and close for a couple of weeks; homeowners do it in September or skip it.

Desert · Still in use · 1954

Arizona's state tree, a desert legume with green, photosynthesizing bark and almost no leaves, that turns the Valley yellow each April. There are two native species, blue and foothill, and the 1954 legislature did not say which one it meant.

Places · Argued over · 1914

The red sandstone buttes and 1,496-acre park at Scottsdale's southern edge, and the name attached to them, a plaza, a golf course and a freeway. 'Papago' is the old Spanish-era outside name for the people who in 1986 formally became the Tohono O'odham.

Civic · Still in use · 1953

The horse-drawn parade down Scottsdale Road each winter, and the rodeo attached to it. Locals say 'the Parada' and mean the whole Western Week it anchors; the name is Spanish-flavored boosterism from 1953, not a translation of anything.

Places · Still in use · 1961

A small, wealthy, almost entirely residential town wedged between Phoenix and Scottsdale around Camelback and Mummy mountains, incorporated in 1961. Locals say PV. The same name also covers a Phoenix school district, mall and college miles to the north, outside the town.

Food · Still in use

The months when Scottsdale restaurants fill their patios, roughly October through May, the opposite of the rest of the country. Misters stretch it into the hot shoulder weeks and propane heaters cover the cold January nights.

Places · Still in use · 1989

The Pavilions at Talking Stick, the big open-air power center off the Loop 101 at Indian Bend Road, built from 1989 to 1991 on Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community land. Locals say 'the Pavilions' for the errands, the Saturday car show and the free parking.

Institutions · Still in use · 1932

The PGA Tour tournament played every February at TPC Scottsdale, officially the WM Phoenix Open. Locals call it 'the Phoenix Open' or just 'the Open,' and they mean the whole week: golf, the 16th-hole stadium, the parties and the traffic on Hayden Road.

Outdoors · Still in use · 1965

A paddle sport played with a perforated plastic ball on a court a fraction the size of tennis, invented in Washington state in 1965. In Scottsdale it is the default social sport for retirees, newcomers and anyone awake at dawn.

History · Still in use · 1910

An extra-long-staple cotton bred by the U.S. Department of Agriculture at Sacaton, on the Gila River reservation, and named for the Pima, the outsiders' name for the Akimel O'odham. A wartime boom in the fiber nearly quadrupled Scottsdale around 1920, then collapsed.

Roads · Still in use · 1879

The north-south road that marks Scottsdale's eastern edge against the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, a mile and three quarters east of Scottsdale Road, then runs north beside the Loop 101 to the Preserve trailheads and Carefree. Named for the Pima, the outside name for the Akimel O'odham.

Places · Still in use

The 3,169-foot granite spire in far north Scottsdale, now inside a 150-acre city park, and by extension the area around it. Locals use the name for the mountain, the road, the old cowboy steakhouse and a whole swath of north Scottsdale addresses.

Roads · Still in use

The east-west road on the 23400 North line of the Valley grid, crossing north Phoenix and, east of Scottsdale Road, far north Scottsdale toward the Pinnacle Peak neighborhoods. Named in the early 1930s by the men who graded it, for the granite peak it led toward.

Living · Still in use

The months a backyard pool is usable without a heater, roughly May through September in Scottsdale, plus the shoulder weeks a heat pump buys. Locals also mean the whole annual rhythm: the heater in March for visitors, bathwater in July, dust in the skimmer every monsoon.

Civic · Argued over · 2016

The legal rule that state law beats a city ordinance on any 'matter of statewide concern.' In Scottsdale it is the one-word explanation for why the city cannot ban party-house rentals and why voters never got their 2026 Axon vote.

Places · Still in use · 1994

The McDowell Sonoran Preserve, more than 30,500 acres of city-owned mountain and desert bought with voter-approved sales taxes. On weekends it is where Scottsdale hikes; at City Hall it is the third rail.

Civic · Still in use · 1995

The dedicated city sales taxes Scottsdale voters approved in 1995 (0.2 percent) and 2004 (0.15 percent) to buy the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, plus the 2024 tax that replaced the first one. Locals say 'the Preserve tax' for any of them.

Desert · Still in use

The flat-padded cactus of the Sonoran Desert, Opuntia, whose pads are nopales and whose magenta fruit are tunas. The fruit flavors the syrup in half the drinks in Old Town; the glochids, the hair-fine barbed spines, are what you remember.

Food · Still in use

A margarita sweetened and colored with syrup from the magenta fruit of the prickly pear cactus. Arizona's house cocktail, found on nearly every Scottsdale menu, and good exactly in proportion to whether the pink came from fruit or from a bottle of dye.

Places · Still in use · 1987

The Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, the big Spanish-colonial resort beside TPC Scottsdale that fills with golf fans in February and Christmas lights in December. Locals drop the 'Fairmont'; the resort opened as the Scottsdale Princess in 1987 and the name stuck.

Civic · Still in use · 2018

The 2018 citizen initiative that amended Scottsdale's charter so no Preserve land can be altered from its natural state, and no Preserve tax money spent on anything but land and trails, without a public vote. Locals cite it the way lawyers cite a constitution.

Architecture · Still in use · 1957

A 20th-century style that imitates the adobe architecture of New Mexico's pueblos and Spanish missions: flat roofs, rounded parapets, earth-toned stucco and projecting roof beams called vigas. Locals call it the Santa Fe look, usually about a house or strip center that borrowed it.

Places · Still in use · 2009

Scottsdale Quarter, the open-air shopping, dining and office district on the east side of Scottsdale Road at Greenway-Hayden Loop. Locals say 'the Quarter,' and in the same breath mention Kierland Commons across the road, which is in Phoenix.

Architecture · Still in use · 1853

An open-sided, roofed shade shelter: four or more posts and a roof of brush, wood or steel. In Arizona it is an everyday word, used for park picnic shelters, backyard shade and the traditional O'odham shade house. Visitors tend to think of the hotel chain first.

Architecture · Still in use

The single-story, low-roofed postwar house that filled South Scottsdale's grid in the 1950s and 60s, usually of concrete block, with a carport and a big backyard. 'Ranch' also survives in the names of master-planned communities built on old cattle and horse ranches.

Desert · Still in use

Arizona's 13 rattlesnake species, led locally by the Western diamondback, the one you will actually meet, and the Mojave, the one people worry about. Locals say 'snake season' for roughly March through October and have one rule: stop, locate, back away.

Places · Faded · 1970

The replica 1880s western town that stood on 160 acres of Scottsdale Road just south of Pinnacle Peak Road from the early 1970s to 2005, with staged gunfights, stagecoach rides and a steakhouse. It moved to Gila River Indian Community land near Chandler.

Places · Still in use

A long, narrow City of Phoenix park on the north bank of the Central Arizona Project canal, between Cave Creek Road and Scottsdale Road, with 18 miles of flat trail, a big sports complex and a horse park. The name is the canal's engineering segment number.

History · Still in use · 1902

The Reclamation Act, signed June 17, 1902, let the federal government build irrigation dams in the West and recover the cost from the farmers. The Salt River Valley's landowners pledged more than 200,000 acres as collateral, and Roosevelt Dam, dedicated March 18, 1911, was the result.

Places · Still in use

The jagged red peak on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community south of Fountain Hills, visible across east Scottsdale and glowing at sunset. Federal maps call it Mount McDowell, and some in Fountain Hills call it FireRock.

Travel · Argued over

A mandatory nightly charge added to the room rate at most big Scottsdale resorts, said to cover amenities such as Wi-Fi, pools, bikes and credits. It is taxed, it rarely drops with the season, and since May 2025 it must be included in the advertised total.

Desert · Still in use

The greater roadrunner, a two-foot ground cuckoo with a shaggy crest, a long tail and a sprint of 15 to 20 miles an hour, that hunts lizards, scorpions and small snakes on foot. Locals say the name with the same small delight every time.

History · Faded · 1948

The private, subscription-based fire company Lou Witzeman founded in 1948 and Scottsdale contracted with from incorporation in 1951 until midnight on July 1, 2005. For half a century it made Scottsdale the national showcase for privatized fire protection; the city now runs its own department.

Desert · Still in use

The giant columnar cactus of the Sonoran Desert, Carnegiea gigantea, pronounced suh-WAR-oh, that grows nowhere else on earth. Its white night-opening blossom is the state flower, its first arm takes most of a century, and cutting one down is a felony.

Places · Still in use · 1930

The two Salt River Project reservoirs nearest Scottsdale: Saguaro Lake on the Salt River, behind Stewart Mountain Dam, and Bartlett Lake on the Verde River, behind Bartlett Dam. When a Scottsdale local says 'going to the lake,' it usually means one of these.

Civic · Still in use

Arizona's version of a sales tax, legally a tax on the seller for the privilege of doing business. Scottsdale's share is 1.70 percent of an 8.0 percent total, and it is the city's biggest revenue source, much of it paid by visitors.

Places · Still in use · 1829

The 200-mile river that drains eastern Arizona's White Mountains and once watered the Hohokam and Phoenix canals. Below Granite Reef Dam it is a dry bed; above it, the Valley's summer swimming hole. Locals also use the name for the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.

Places · Still in use · 2011

The 140-acre spring-training home of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies, opened in 2011 on Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community land east of the Loop 101. Locals shorten it to 'the Fields' or 'SRF' and use it as a landmark for the whole Talking Stick district.

Desert · Argued over · 2016

The free-roaming horse herd of the lower Salt River in the Tonto National Forest, northeast of Scottsdale. Locals call them the wild horses, the Forest Service once called them stray livestock, and a 2016 state law made harming them a crime.

Institutions · Still in use · 1969

SCC is Scottsdale Community College, the Maricopa County community college at Chaparral and Pima roads, opened in 1969 on land leased from the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. Locals also say 'the Artichokes' for its teams.

Travel · Still in use · 1967

The city of Scottsdale's general-aviation airport in the north-central Airpark, built on a 1942 Army flight-school runway. Private jets, charters and flight schools use it; no scheduled airline does, so most visitors land at Sky Harbor.

Institutions · Still in use · 1975

Three names for one arts campus on the Civic Center. The Center is the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts (1975); SMoCA is the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (1999); Scottsdale Arts is the city-funded nonprofit that runs both, plus public art and Canal Convergence.

Places · Still in use · 1984

The master-planned community of about 3,900 homes built from 1984 along Via Linda, between Shea Boulevard and the Loop 101, around the 42-acre man-made Lake Serena. Locals say 'the Ranch' for the neighborhood and use it as the landmark for the Shea corridor's east half.

Roads · Still in use · 1921

The north-south arterial on the 7200 East line of the Valley grid, running from Tempe, where it begins as the continuation of Rural Road, through Old Town to Carefree Highway. For much of its northern length it is the boundary with Phoenix. It was originally called Paradise Road.

Nicknames · Argued over · 1951

Scottsdale is a separate city of about 243,000 people that borders Phoenix on the west. It is 'in Phoenix' only in the sense that it is part of the Phoenix metropolitan area, which locals call the Valley.

Living · Still in use

The 852-prefix postal codes that divide Scottsdale: ten standard codes for the city proper, 85250 to 85266, plus neighbors that carry a Scottsdale address without being in the city. Locals read them the way other cities read neighborhoods: 85251 is Old Town, 85255 and 85262 are money.

Civic · Still in use · 2015

The city's Old Town holiday program from late November through December: a tree lighting and sing-along, Santa at the farmers market, light strolls and concerts. It is the municipal pun locals stopped noticing years ago.

Outdoors · Still in use

A scramble is a climb where you use your hands as well as your feet, short of roped climbing. Hikers grade it with the Class 1 to 5 scale; locals use 'scramble' mostly for Camelback's upper half.

Roads · Still in use · 1916

The east-west arterial on the 10600 North line, running about 19.5 miles from north Phoenix through Scottsdale and over the McDowells to Fountain Hills and the Beeline. Locals use it as the line between north and south Scottsdale. Named for James Shea, a farmer.

Places · Still in use

The band of Scottsdale a mile either side of Shea Boulevard, from Scottsdale Road east across the Loop 101 to the McDowell foothills. Locals use it for the neighborhoods, hospitals and strip-mall restaurants along the road; the city's planners call the same area Central Scottsdale.

Civic · Argued over · 2016

A house or condo rented for less than 30 days, Airbnb-style. Since the 2016 state law SB 1350, Arizona cities cannot ban them; since 2022 Scottsdale can license them. 'STR' and 'party house' are the words neighbors use, rarely kindly.

Places · Still in use · 2004

The guard-gated 2,000-acre enclave in the McDowell Mountain canyons above DC Ranch, opened by DMB in 2004 with about 700 custom homesites, a Tom Weiskopf course and a 50,000-square-foot club. In Scottsdale real-estate talk, 'Silverleaf' is shorthand for the most expensive houses in the state.

Travel · Still in use · 1928

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), the city of Phoenix's airport three miles east of downtown Phoenix and the one nearly every Scottsdale visitor flies into. Locals just say Sky Harbor, or the airport.

Places · Still in use · 2008

The 42-acre ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center at Scottsdale and McDowell roads, opened in 2008 on the site of Los Arcos Mall and recognizable by its white tensile shade sail. Locals use the name for the office campus, the landmark and the turnaround of south Scottsdale.

Nicknames · Argued over · 2006

The rest of the Valley's name for Scottsdale, meaning rich, snobby and pleased with itself. Nobody who lives here uses it unironically, and everybody who lives here has heard it.

Nicknames · Still in use

A person from a cold place who spends the winter months in Arizona and goes home in spring. Locals say it about Canadians, Midwesterners and anyone driving slowly in a car with Alberta plates; the tourism office prefers 'winter visitor.'

Desert · Still in use

The 100,000-square-mile desert that wraps around the Gulf of California, covering southern Arizona, Sonora, southeastern California and most of Baja California. Scottsdale sits in its upland corner, and locals use the name with pride: this is the desert with saguaros.

Food · Still in use

A hot dog wrapped in bacon, grilled, set in a soft split-top bolillo roll and buried in pinto beans, chopped onion and tomato, mayonnaise, mustard and jalapeño salsa. Born in Hermosillo, Sonora, perfected in Tucson, and sold from carts across Phoenix.

Architecture · Still in use · 1915

The stucco-walled, red-tile-roofed, arched and courtyarded style that American architects built from 1915 to the 1930s in imitation of Spain's colonies. In Scottsdale it means the Old Adobe Mission, the resort lobbies that copy it, and any new house with a tile roof.

Institutions · Still in use · 1956

Major League Baseball's preseason, played in Arizona's Cactus League from late February through March. In Scottsdale the phrase means the whole month: Giants games in Old Town, D-backs and Rockies games at Salt River Fields, full hotels and full patios.

Living · Still in use

The two electric utilities that divide Scottsdale: Arizona Public Service, the investor-owned company regulated by the Corporation Commission, and Salt River Project, the landowner-governed district born of the 1903 dam. 'Are you SRP or APS?' is the first question any neighbor asks about a power bill.

Civic · Still in use · 1879

The abbreviation for the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, the sovereign nation on Scottsdale's eastern border. Locals say 'the Community'; the Community itself says Onk Akimel O'odham and Xalychidom Piipaash for its two peoples.

Civic · Still in use · 1910

Land the federal government granted Arizona at statehood to earn money for public schools, held in trust and sold or leased only at public auction for at least appraised value. North Scottsdale's empty-looking desert was mostly this, and the Preserve was bought from it.

Places · Argued over

The dozen or so blocks of clubs, day clubs and bars east of Scottsdale Road between Camelback and Indian School roads, centered on Stetson Drive, Saddlebag Trail, Indian Plaza and Shoeman Lane. 'Stetson' is the locals' one-word name for the whole scene.

Civic · Still in use · 1995

The universal nickname for Arizona Revised Statutes 28-910, a 1995 law that lets public agencies bill a driver up to $2,000 for a rescue after driving around barricades into a flooded road. Locals invoke it every monsoon, usually while watching someone do exactly that on the news.

Nicknames · Still in use · 1969

The warm southern third of the United States, Florida to California, that grew fastest after World War II. The term is a political analyst's coinage from 1969, and Scottsdale, which went from 2,000 people to 200,000 in fifty years, is one of its purest examples.

Institutions · Faded · 1988

The free Sunday-afternoon concert series Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts ran on the Civic Center lawns from 1988, with Arizona bands, an arts market and blankets on the grass. Renamed Sun & Sounds in 2025; longtime locals still say Sunday A'Fair.

Outdoors · Still in use

The Preserve trail that climbs from the end of Via Linda, on the Fountain Hills line, to 3,069-foot Sunrise Peak. Locals say 'Sunrise' for the trailhead, the trail and the habit of summiting it before work.

Institutions · Still in use · 1968

The Phoenix Suns, the NBA franchise that began play in 1968 as Arizona's first major-league team and plays downtown at the arena now called Mortgage Matchup Center. Scottsdale has no team of its own, so the Suns are its team by default, along with the WNBA's Mercury.

Places · Still in use · 1872

The Superstition Mountains, the rugged range at the far eastern edge of the Phoenix metro, anchored by the cliff of Superstition Mountain above Apache Junction. Locals say 'the Superstitions' or 'the Supes' and mean the skyline, the wilderness and the gold legend all at once.

Civic · Still in use · 1896

SUSD is Scottsdale Unified School District No. 48, the district for most of the city. North Scottsdale is split with Paradise Valley Unified, which brands itself PVSchools, and Cave Creek Unified, CCUSD. Locals use the acronyms the way other cities use neighborhood names.

Living · Faded · 1908

An evaporative cooler: a box with a fan that pulls hot dry air through wet pads and blows it out 20 or 30 degrees cooler and damper. The Valley ran on them from the 1930s to the 1960s; in Scottsdale the word now means a rooftop relic.

Architecture · Still in use · 1937

Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home and studio at the foot of the McDowells, and by extension the Fellowship, the apprentices who lived and built there. Locals drop the 'West'; the Wisconsin original is far away.

Places · Still in use · 1998

The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community's brand for its Loop 101 enterprises: Talking Stick Golf Club (1998), Talking Stick Resort (2010), Salt River Fields at Talking Stick (2011) and the Pavilions. Locals use it for the casino tower and the whole district east of the freeway.

Food · Still in use

The Valley's December habit of making or ordering tamales by the dozen for Christmas Eve, a Mexican tradition carried by Arizona's Sonoran families. Tamale season runs from Thanksgiving to New Year's, and the good kitchens take orders early.

Desert · Still in use

The Arizona blonde tarantula, a big, slow, mostly harmless burrowing spider whose males wander roads and patios in the summer rains looking for mates; and the tarantula hawk, the huge blue-black, orange-winged wasp that hunts it.

Golf · Still in use

A tee time is your reserved start; a twilight rate is the discounted price for one in the afternoon. In Scottsdale the two words cover a whole pricing system that swings from summer bargain to February peak and now changes by the hour.

Architecture · Still in use · 1846

A Southwestern style that dresses a flat-roofed adobe box with Anglo trim: a course of brick along the parapet, squared wooden posts and pedimented windows. In Scottsdale it mostly means the postwar revival, a block house with a brick-capped parapet.

Outdoors · Still in use

The antenna-topped summit of the McDowell Mountains that stands over McDowell Mountain Ranch, 3,984 feet high. Locals use the name for the peak, Thompson Peak Parkway below it and the hard climb to the towers.

Institutions · Still in use · 1937

The 55-member Phoenix civic club that owns and runs the WM Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale. In February 'the Thunderbirds' means the men in purple velvet tops and silver bird pendants running the biggest party in golf; a member is 'a Thunderbird' or 'a Bird.'

History · Argued over · 1986

The Tohono O'odham, 'desert people,' are the O'odham nation of southern Arizona's dry country, cousins of the river-farming Akimel O'odham. Outsiders called them Papago until the Nation adopted its own name in 1986; the old word survives on a Phoenix park, a freeway and a Scottsdale shopping center.

Places · Still in use

The 140-foot granite spire on the McDowell Mountains ridgeline, named in the 1960s for Phoenix climber Tom Kreuser. Locals use the name for the rock, the steep trail to it and the busy Preserve trailhead on 128th Street.

Places · Still in use · 1905

Tonto National Forest, the 2.9-million-acre federal forest that begins at Scottsdale's northern city limit and runs to the Mogollon Rim. Locals say 'the Tonto' for the forest and its lakes and rivers, and 'a Tonto Pass' for the permit you need to park there.

History · Still in use · 1894

The original townsite is the 40-acre grid Albert Utley platted in 1894 south of Winfield Scott's 1888 homestead, and by extension the roughly one square mile that incorporated as the Town of Scottsdale in 1951. Old Town sits on it; the city's other 183 square miles were annexed later.

Golf · Still in use · 1986

The two-course golf complex at 17020 North Hayden Road: the Stadium Course, built in 1986 to host the Phoenix Open, and the Champions Course. Locals say 'TPC' or 'the Stadium Course.' It is public, PGA Tour-run, and sits on federal land the city leased in 1985.

Outdoors · Still in use

The written rules and unwritten habits for sharing Scottsdale's trails: bikes yield to everyone, everyone yields to horses, dogs stay on a six-foot leash, e-bikes stay out of the Preserve, and nothing gets left behind.

Outdoors · Still in use · 1948

The parking lot, map board and restroom building where a trail begins. In Scottsdale it usually means one of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve's free, gated lots, and locals name hikes by trailhead rather than by trail.

Travel · Still in use · 1987

Scottsdale's fare-free city bus service, run with buses dressed up as old streetcars. In 2026 it runs three neighborhood routes on weekdays; the Old Town loop visitors remember has been suspended since 2020.

Places · Still in use · 1986

The far-north Scottsdale golf and home communities around Pinnacle Peak: Troon, a private country club community from 1986, and Troon North, the public courses and neighborhoods from 1990. The name is borrowed from Royal Troon in Scotland and now also belongs to a global golf company.

Outdoors · Still in use

The clock time, set before you start, at which you turn back whether or not you have reached the top. In summer Scottsdale it pairs with the folk '10 a.m. rule': be off the mountain before the heat, not starting into it.

Nicknames · Still in use · 1935

Metropolitan Phoenix, all of it, from Buckeye to Apache Junction. Locals say 'the Valley' and never the full slogan, which survives only on TV station idents and the Thunderbirds' mission statement.

Travel · Still in use · 2008

Valley Metro is the Phoenix area's regional transit agency, running buses and the light rail. 'The light rail' is its train, open since 2008 through Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa. It does not enter Scottsdale, by the city's choice.

Places · Still in use

The 170-mile river that comes down from central Arizona, through Horseshoe and Bartlett lakes, and joins the Salt River on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. For Scottsdale it is the nearest flowing river, a short drive out Rio Verde Drive.

Desert · Still in use

A dry streambed that carries water only after rain, the desert's version of a creek. Locals use 'a wash' for any of them and 'the Wash' for Indian Bend Wash, the floodway down the middle of Scottsdale that became the Greenbelt.

Civic · Still in use · 1903

The Salt River Valley Water Users' Association, the private landowners' corporation formed in 1903 to guarantee repayment for Roosevelt Dam. Today it is the water half of the Salt River Project. Old-timers say 'the Association'; everyone else just says SRP.

Places · Still in use · 2005

The Scottsdale Waterfront, the mid-2000s district of condo towers, offices and restaurant patios along the Arizona Canal at Camelback and Scottsdale roads, across from Fashion Square. The water is an 1885 irrigation canal, which locals mention within the first sentence.

Travel · Still in use · 2017

Alphabet's driverless ride-hail service, the white electric cars with spinning roof sensors and nobody at the wheel. Metro Phoenix was its first public market, and since 2023 it has carried riders in Scottsdale, including Old Town and the airport.

Places · Still in use

The western half of the Phoenix metro, everything west of Interstate 17: Glendale, Peoria, Surprise, Goodyear, Avondale, Buckeye and the Sun Cities. From Scottsdale it is the far side of town, an hour away on a bad day.

Nicknames · Still in use · 1947

Scottsdale's official motto, on the city seal since 1951, and the phrase behind the hitching posts, board sidewalks and Western storefront rules in Old Town. Locals use it straight on a parade float and with a raised eyebrow everywhere else.

Institutions · Still in use · 2015

Western Spirit: Scottsdale's Museum of the West, the city-owned, nonprofit-run museum of Western art and history at 3830 North Marshall Way in Old Town, open since January 2015 and a Smithsonian Affiliate. Locals say 'the Museum of the West'; the signage says Western Spirit.

Civic · Still in use · 2017

The City of Scottsdale's late-January-to-early-February bundle of Western events: the Hashknife Pony Express arrival, a Western Gold Palette ArtWalk, the Arizona Indian Festival and the Parada del Sol parade. Locals use it as a date: 'after Western Week.'

Desert · Still in use

The weeks from about February into April when desert annuals and shrubs bloom across the Sonoran Desert. A superbloom is the rare year when a wet winter wakes so many dormant seeds at once that whole hillsides turn orange, yellow and purple.

Travel · Still in use

The formal, neutral name for people who spend the cold months in the Valley and go home for summer. Researchers and tourism offices say winter visitor; neighbors stuck in February traffic say snowbird.

Living · Still in use · 1981

Landscaping designed for little or no irrigation: desert-adapted plants, drip lines, mulch and gravel in place of lawn. Coined in Denver in 1981 from the Greek xeros, dry. Scottsdale Water prefers 'Arizona-friendly' but runs a Xeriscape Garden and pays residents to rip out grass.

History · Still in use · 1903

The Yavapai are the Upland Yuman-speaking people whose homeland included the McDowell Mountains and the Verde and Salt river country. The Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, on the Verde northeast of Scottsdale, is one of three Yavapai nations and the one that defeated Orme Dam in 1981.

Nicknames · Argued over

An Arizonan, especially one who flees the summer heat for the San Diego coast. Coined as an insult by Californians, it has been adopted by Arizonans as a badge, and Scottsdale in July is where the migration starts.