The federal gazetteer classes McDowell Pass as a “Gap” on the Granite Reef Dam quadrangle, about three miles south of the center of Fountain Hills and two miles northwest of Mount McDowell, the peak everyone calls Red Mountain. It gives no history for the name. The likeliest source is the same one as for the mountains, the Army’s 1865 Camp McDowell and the Civil War general it honored, but nothing on the record says so. The USGS’s own map layers show the Beeline Highway passing within about 50 yards of the gazetteer’s point, on land inside the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. That makes this the Beeline’s gap. It isn’t the ridge Shea Boulevard climbs over into Fountain Hills, a separate crossing farther north that we found no name for. If you’ve taken the Beeline north from Mesa toward Fort McDowell and Payson, you’ve been through McDowell Pass without a sign telling you so.
McDowell Pass: The Beeline Highway's Unmarked Gap Below Red Mountain
A name on federal maps that almost nobody uses: McDowell Pass is the gap the Beeline Highway threads south of Fountain Hills, on Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community land. It is not the Shea Boulevard crossing into Fountain Hills, which has no name we could find.
In one line
McDowell Pass: 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.
The 30-second version
- The federal gazetteer lists McDowell Pass as a gap on the Granite Reef Dam quadrangle, about three miles south of central Fountain Hills.
- USGS map layers put the Beeline Highway (State Route 87) within about 50 yards of the gazetteer's point.
- It lies on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, about two miles northwest of Mount McDowell (Red Mountain).
- The gazetteer gives no history for the name; the 1865 Camp McDowell is the likeliest source, but the record doesn't say so.
Shelf
Status
Faded
Historical; you will read it more than hear it.
Who said it first
Unknown; the federal gazetteer lists the name with no history and no board decision
Words that go with it
The lexicon entries this one leans on.
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Places · Still in use
Red Mountain
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.
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Roads · Still in use
The Beeline
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.'
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Places · Still in use
The McDowells
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.'
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Civic · Still in use
SRPMIC (the Community)
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.
Where you'll meet it on this site
The guides that carry the full story.
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Neighborhood guide
Fountain Hills
A whole town built around a sales gimmick, fifteen minutes over the hill — and the gimmick still goes off every hour.
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Government · Sovereign Neighbors
Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community
A sovereign nation on Scottsdale's eastern border since 1879
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Neighborhood guide
Talking Stick & the Salt River Reservation
Not Scottsdale. Scottsdale address. Scottsdale's tallest building. It's complicated, and it's fun.
Where this comes from
The record behind the entry.
Facts checked: October 3, 2026 • Curated by the Scottsdale.tips editors • Plain-English explainer. Usage changes faster than the record; corrections are welcome.
More from the same shelf
Places · 2018
Old Town (versus Downtown)
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.
Places · 1994
The Preserve
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.
Places · 1963
The Airpark
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.