If you grew up in Arizona, where did you take your out-of-town guests?
For my family, especially when the guests had kids, it was Rawhide.
Rawhide opened in 1971 near Pinnacle Peak and Scottsdale roads as a replica of an 1880s frontier town. The concept came from the mind of Jim Paul, who, according to an article in The Arizona Republic on Nov. 18, 1971, referred to himself as “jes’ another ole broke-down cowpoke.”
Paul was dedicated to the antiques he and his wife brought to Rawhide. The couple spent more than 10 years collecting valuables for the exhibits they put on display.
In the same Nov. 18 article, he said, “It wasn’t as difficult as you might think to find this stuff. Sometimes we bought whole towns with merchandise on the shelves,” he said.
“Just like Rip Van Winkles, they’d been sleeping there in the hills undisturbed for 100 years.”
Since Rawhide had no parking or entry fee when it opened, writer Maggie Wilson also said in her story, “It is possible to go sop up frontier history and ogle the antiques without spending a dime.”
But Rawhide became more than the antiques. Visitors could experience the Old West through gunfights, Western costumes and stagecoach rides.
In 1998, under new management, live country music was added to the venue’s entertainment lineup.
By 2001, Rawhide was struggling to attract new visitors and faced new restrictions from the city of Scottsdale as the city continued to grow around it.
And in 2005, Rawhide in Scottsdale was calling it quits.
In an article in The Republic on Oct. 20, 2005, Scottsdale resident Wendy Crawford, who played Ms. Belle at the Golden Belle Saloon, spoke about the closing. The story read, “Crawford said she knew the Scottsdale run was over when she was showing her young son cactus behind Rawhide and he pointed out a Starbucks across the street.”
After years in Scottsdale, Rawhide closed and relocated south to the Gila River Indian Community near Chandler in 2006.
But the memories of the Scottsdale location live on. I have so many photos of my family in cowboy hats at the Golden Belle or sitting on the train waiting to take a ride. (Does anyone else remember a mannequin hanging from the gallows? Or is that just a fever dream I still have to this day?) But what I can say is that Rawhide isn’t helping Arizona beat our Wild West allegations anytime soon.
Katherine Chircus was born and raised in Scottsdale and is a digital operations manager for The Arizona Republic. Send tips on Arizona history items to kfritcke@azcentral.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Why Rawhide was the ultimate Arizona destination
