McCormick Ranch History

7 square miles in the center of our city was the last large working ranch in Scottsdale.  The Ranch was originally a mere 160 acres when it was created in 1942 by Merle Chaney, but change and expansion were just around the corner.  Merle sold the ranch in the mid 40's to Fowler & Anne McCormick.  The McCormicks were quite affluent as Fowler was the grandson of both Cyrus McCormick and John Rockefeller.   Can you imagine?  Fowler was no slouch mind you, he had embraced the notion of hard work early on and had worked his way up from a job in the foundry to President and Chairman of the Board of International Harvester.

Fowler and Anne enjoyed residences in Quebec, Canada, Pleasantville, NY, a Villa on the Riviera, a farm in Barrington, IL and an apartment in Chicago.  Anne enjoyed the dry climate Arizona offered and persuaded Fowler to buy Merle's ranch as a winter home.  Anne loved horses and began breeding Palominos.  After a time it became clear that more than 160 acres would be required for proper riding areas and the production of feed so Anne began acquiring adjacent parcels of land.  Some 600 acres were ultimately dedicated just to producing grain products. 

Anne & Angus were the next ranch development.  Anne decided to see how some of her Illinois based Angus cattle might do in the Arizona heat, so she shipped 25 head to Scottsdale.  The cattle thrived and Anne brought the rest of the 350 head herd to town within a year and a half.  The McCormicks raised both show and breeding stock and became recognized as raising some of the finest Angus stock in the entire USA.  Today's McCormick Ranch Property Owner's Association logo is the original McCormick Ranch cattle Brand.

Notice how the M, C & R are incorporated into the logo.

Anne & The Arabians joined forces in 1949.  Anne was responsible for bringing Arabian horses to Scottsdale and helped found the All-Arabian show.   Anne imported the pure bred stallion Son Royal from England along with two pure bred mares.  She had already purchased a well-regarded Arabian, Mustafa and was eventually to import the famous Arabian Naborr from Poland.  Through all of this Mrs. McCormick was actively involved in running the ranch, which, by the time of her death in 1969, had grown, to 4,236 acres.  Each year she enjoyed spending the months between Thanksgiving and mid April at her property in Scottsdale.  Anne and Fowler and their son, Guy Stillman (pictured below), donated nearly 100 acres at the southeast corner of Indian Bend and Scottsdale Road to the city of Scottsdale that is today known as the McCormick Ranch Railroad Park.

Kaiser-Aetna bought the McCormick Ranch in 1970 for $12,100,000 or approximately $2,850/acre.  When Kaiser-Aetna bought the Ranch, it was the largest single property sold for a planned community within a city’s limits in the USA.  Today the Ranch comprises 3,116 acres.  In 1980 Kaiser Aetna sold 1,120 acres, that they had not yet developed, to Transcontinental Properties who in turn sold to Markland Properties.  Markland then developed the area we now know as Scottsdale Ranch.

 The developing ranch.