Camelback Mountain (Images of America: Arizona)

Learned a great deal about the establishment of Scottsdale, very popular with the Hollywood crowd back in the day and a lot of religious history as well, great read.

Grew up in that area and really love seeing the old pictures. A great tie bit of history on camel back mountain

I have a strong interest in any material on Camelback Mountain, having lived on its lower-slope for 30+ years. Gary Driggs, a well-known and lifelong area resident doesn't disappoint. His book provides a number of 70-100 year-old photos of the area, pre-development, and often featuring early Phoenix leaders. Earliest use was by local tribes - Griggs provides photos of the grotto and artifacts found inside.Development around Camelback Mountain got its initial impetus from construction of the 31-mile Arizona Canal in the early 1880s. Land in the area was remarkably cheap into the 1940s - as little as $100/acre (now $1+ million). Resorts that sprang up in the area include Jokake Inn, Camelback Inn, Paradise Inn, Royal Palms, Mountain Shadows, John Gardiner's Tennis Inn, Ingleside Club, El Chorro Lodge, and The Phoenician. Some have closed, others changed their names, but all are part of the area history.Today about 300,000 hikers climb Camelback each year (2,704' peak); not all make it back - a few succumb to heart attack, falls, and heat stroke. All of us owe a great debt of gratitude to Barry Goldwater et al who worked to save Camelback from development in the mid-1960s.