Scarp: Two birthday songs for Winfield Scott

Casting the part of the founder of what became “The West’s Most Western Town” would be among a Western movie director’s most difficult challenges.

Even if all the classic Western film stars were at that director’s disposal — John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Ward Bond, Henry Fonda, James Stewart, and the like — each would be too rough-hewn to be convincing in the role of the gentle teetotaling Baptist minister who founded Scottsdale.

Read Mark Scarp's blog, Scarpsdale

Downtown ceremonies in front of the Little Red Schoolhouse, whose construction Scott oversaw, honored him Tuesday in celebration of what would have been his 171st birthday.

Scott abhorred alcohol. Author and journalist Patricia Myers said at Tuesday’s event that although seven types of grapes grew on land farmed by Scott’s brother, George, they were all for raisins, not wine.

In fact, in a 1978 biography of Scott published by the city, author Richard Lynch wrote that Scott founded the Arizona Territory’s first chapter of the Anti-Saloon League here.

State historian Marshall Trimble of Scottsdale, waiting his turn to go to the lectern to sing, joked to me that perhaps some tribute should be paid to a man named Johnny Rose who opened the first pool hall in Scottsdale. It sold liquor.

What Scott lacked in swagger he made up for in foresight and dedication, which resulted in a community without the Westerns’ saloons, or showdowns with cards or six-guns.

Lynch wrote that on Scott’s first visit to what was to become Scottsdale in February 1888, what he dreamed of was agriculture, fields more abundant than what he knew in California, where he had been living.

(That’s right. Scottsdale’s founder was a transplanted Californian who was born in Michigan and grew up in New York.)

He was right. At the time this town was so known for its citrus crops it was nearly named Orangedale. Scott began talking to Valley business leaders about how the Southwest had become a focal point for migration from the East, Lynch wrote.

The reason was simple: The Valley’s winter climate was “superior to any (Scott) had encountered on the Pacific Coast,” Lynch wrote.

So remember next January when the day’s high temperature never gets out of the 50s that it’s a dry cold.

Scott also saw a future in tourism, and in 1905 tried to secure investors for a trolley line that would have run from Mesa through Scottsdale to Glendale, according to Lynch.

That was 1905, not 2005.

While Scott’s virtues as visionary and kindly man of God were extolled at Tuesday’s ceremonies, John Little, Scottsdale’s Downtown Group director, told me that in a way, Scott was the city’s first developer.

As I was pondering that, Trimble got up, strummed his guitar and sang two songs that honored Scott’s legacy of growth and its challenges. One song Trimble co-wrote. Its refrain is:

“Winfield Scott was a mighty fine man, he helped to tame an arid land; he showed the folks how to make the desert grow....”

The other was by the late singer Marty Robbins, who, with apologies to Jordin Sparks, is the pride of Glendale. While no “El Paso,” it brings to the lips a sad smile. Its lyrics, in part:

“Soon will be gone all the desert, and cities will cover the hills, and all this will be just a fond memory... Man walks among us — be still. Man walks among us — be still.”

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Historical information used in this column is from Richard E. Lynch’s 1978 book, “Winfield Scott: A Biography of Scottsdale’s Founder.”