Saddle up: West's most Western Week nears

Jan. 23—This time of year, year-round locals grumble at snowbirds and tourists who flee frigid winters — only to clog Scottsdale roads, take up parking spots and add to lines.

In the coming days, however, crabbiness gives way to benevolence, as home towners and visitors alike bask in the rich tradition of Scottsdale.

"The West's Most Western" — as Scottsdale calls itself — celebrates its most Western week Saturday, Jan. 27, through Feb. 4.

With the holidays fading fast in the rearview mirror, Western Week also kicks off "the season," as merchants salivating over ringing cash registers call the time from late January through the spring.

Now home to more than 240,000 people, Scottsdale long ago blew past "town" status to become a fast-growing, thriving city.

Yet it clutches its Western history with a dying gunfighter's pistol grip — the cultural and social center of Scottsdale is called Old Town, where the past and present crash together.

Bustling with 80 galleries, 320 shops selling everything from tourist trinkets to high-end fashion and 90 restaurants, bars and brew pubs, Old Town is the perfect backdrop for Western Week.

Western Week's launches at the Marshall Way Bridge, which will be the scene of blacksmith demonstrations, line dancing and bands cranking country and rock.

Live music will also be featured at the weekly Old Town Scottsdale Farmers Market, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 27.

The weekly "art walk" gets kicked up to "Gold Palette" status from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 1. In addition to the regular demonstrations and special events at galleries, Western Week-themed entertainment will help visitors enjoy their artsy stroll through Old Town.

Just before the art walk, Joan Fudala — who was recently named "Scottsdale's Official Historian" by the city — will give a talk on "The West's Most Western Town: "Then and Now."

Fudala's photo-heavy presentation will be at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 1, at Western Spirit: Scottsdale's Museum of the West.

The Western museum in Old Town also is the launching spot for the 66th Annual Hashknife Pony Express Arrival, scheduled for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2.

The Hashknife Pony Express is the oldest officially sanctioned Pony Express in the world, delivering more than 20,000 pieces of U.S. Mail to the steps of Scottsdale's Museum of the West.

The horseback postmen and women will be greeted with an event featuring bands, line dancers, Native American hoop dancers, kids' activities and food trucks.

The event is free, as is admission to the museum all day from 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2, and Saturday, Feb. 3.

Western Spirit: Scottsdale's Museum of the West is at 3830 N Marshall Way.

A few blocks away from the museum, Scottsdale Civic Center will host the Arizona Indian Festival from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3, and 10 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 4.

The Arizona American Indian Tourism Association, in partnership with Arizona's Native American tribes, hosts this annual event.

The history of the state's Native American Indian tribes will be illustrated with examples of traditional Indian villages and dwellings, traditional arts and crafts demonstrations — plus Native food vendors, musicians and singers.

The timeframe of Western Week really stretches to two weeks, as the 70th annual Scottsdale Parada del Sol Historic Parade and Trail's End Festival caps off events Saturday, Feb. 3.

Read next week's Scottsdale Progress for more on "the West's Most Western parade."

Not wild, still West

Scottsdale has been tamed — and sophisticated — quite a bit from its "Wild West" days.

With its million-dollar homes, fancy restaurants and high-end shops, is Scottsdale still Western?

"Oh, I think so," said Fudala, beaming at the thought of her adopted hometown.

She has lived in Scottsdale since the early 1990s and, though the population has nearly doubled since then, insists the booming city maintains its "The West's Most Western Town" atmosphere.

She credits Malcolm White, Scottsdale's first mayor, with coining the phrase — "which the Chamber of Commerce adopted back in 1947.

I think they were very smart," Fudula said. "I call it 'the Swiss army knife of slogans.'"

Indeed, Scottsdale is hardly what it used to be. Old Town was once filled with ranches and farms, for instance.

"Cotton was our biggest cash crop from about 1914 through the 1950s," Fudula noted.

While Old Town has progressed from cotton gins to gin and tonics, the city is still authentic to its roots, as Fudula sees it.

To her, "Western" is hardly a term exclusive to local history.

"Western is the environment, the mountains, the desert, the lifestyle — equestrians," the historian said.

"I think Scottsdale is as Western as it always has been."