This week I thought I would reflect back to the early to mid-1970s when Fountain Hills was just getting started and some of the people that shaped the direction of this community.

The rise of the fountain for the first time was on Dec. 15, 1970. Valley television stations were on hand along with some county officials, executives of McCulloch Properties Inc., the master developer of the community. I was there from the Scottsdale advertising agency to take photographs of the event. I met photographer Hank Hoag in the pumphouse. He was the official McCulloch photographer. Hank introduced me to C.V. Wood, Robert McCulloch and Fred Schumacher.

One notable entity that wasn’t there was The Arizona Republic newspaper. They had run some derogatory news stories about Fountain Hills earlier with front page headlines of how McCulloch was “raping the desert with bulldozers and earthmovers” for a new development northeast of Scottsdale.

Fred Schumacher, the original project manager for Fountain Hills, was on hand as was his replacement, Bill Fisher, who would oversee development for the next 30 years. He survived the takeover of the development company by a Houston businessman in the late 1970s.

That man was Charles Hurwitz. He had a different development philosophy than the McCulloch people did.

It proved successful and land and home values increased.

But getting back to the purpose of this column was to take you back to the early 1970s and introduce you to some of the people who started this community.

Wood drew up the first master plan for Fountain Hills. He was also president of McCulloch Oil Corp. McCulloch was the CEO and founder of the entire McCulloch corporate operations. Wood and Schumacher had been executives with Walt Disney and the development of Disneyland.

As I said, December 15, 1970, was the first time the Fountain was turned on publicly and that is observed as the starting date of the community. So, Fountain Hills was 50 years old as of yesterday.

Actually, the fountain was turned on several months before that and the force of the fountain’s three 600-horsepower turbine engines blew out the concrete lining of the large steel pipe that runs to the Fountain base from the pump-house. There were more test runs before the viewing on Dec 15.

Lot sales to homebuilders began in October 1971. Lot sales to the general public started in February 1972.

Cocopah Construction was the first homebuilder in the community to open model homes. The two houses were located on Calaveras Avenue, across from the present location of the Boys and Girls Club.

There were two other builders that were active at the start of general lot sales. They were Ted Hay Homes and Dickenson Construction.

Savittieri Construction began construction on the first duplex in January 1972.

Dell Trailor, a major Valley home builder, broke ground in June 1972 on a 41-unit apartment complex on the corner of Saguaro Blvd. and Gunsight Drive. Trailor also started construction of a major housing project called Fontana that had 220 units upon completion. It was the first major multi-unit development in Fountain Hills.

The community’s first businessman was Steve Boll, who delivered milk and other dairy products to homes and construction workers. He was affiliated with Shamrock Dairy.

The first business to begin construction was Del Camino Nursery on Enterprise Drive. Owner of the business was Pat Riding.

Work started in April 1972 on U-Tote-M the community’s first convenience store. It opened as the first business in the community in June of that year.

Two Iowa farmers, Wendell Fugate and Vic Peterson, built commercial buildings along the Saguaro Boulevard frontage road and Enterprise Drive beginning in 1972.

Initial grading began in May 1972 on the community’s first golf course, called the Fountain Hills Golf Club. Today it is known as Desert Canyon Golf Club. Johnny Allen designed the course and was its first golf pro.

Well, that is enough for this week. We’ll give you some more history next time.