Carefree Days
Art and History are alive and well in the Black Mountain Foothills

A brochure produced in the early 1960s encourages readers to think of Carefree, Arizona as “a spot to shop, a center of culture, a challenge to your golf skill, an exciting place to eat, a beautiful vacation area or home site, or just a very scenic interlude on a Sunday drive.” 40 years later not much has changed in the perception of this thoughtfully planned resort community located north of Scottsdale at the intersection of Cave Creek Road and Tom Darlington Drive. And for my family, Carefree represents something even more special.

As co-founder of the community of Carefree, my grandfather K.T. Palmer, along with business partner Tom Darlington, combined a love of the Arizona desert landscape with an entrepreneurial spirit to create what is today one of the most charming planned communities in Arizona. We are very proud of my grandfather’s achievement.

Carefree’s Past
Having arrived in Arizona as a tuberculosis patient, K.T. had had Arizona forced upon him and as a result he had resolved not to like the place. However, on a desert drive one spring morning in the 1930s, my grandfather found himself surrounded by a sea of blooming ironwood trees, giant saguaros and dazzling palo verdes and suddenly saw this place he had vowed to dislike in a new light. He saw the land as something that could produce beauty. As he himself expresses it in his autobiography, K.T. was “overwhelmed with a desire to possess this land, to be a part of all this beauty.”

The community of Carefree began with that idea. By the 1950s, having experienced a number of professional incarnations, Palmer and Darlington found themselves operating as a partnership dealing with real estate, with offices in the rapidly growing resort community of Scottsdale. Both men liked the idea of planning and building a town from scratch, and recognizing the possibilities presented by the favorable site of what is today the Town of Carefree, the first pieces of land in the area were acquired with the help of several other investors. The dream was on its way to becoming a reality.

Soon afterward, the search for a name of the new community began. Darlington and Palmer came up with and then rejected name after name. They believed the name should be as unique as possible and in fact newsworthy in itself. No one remembers who came up with the name Carefree, although my grandfather does contend that it was but one of many possibilities. He had even toyed with the idea of naming the development after a single letter of the alphabet to attract media attention. However, by the time planning experts had been brought in and engineers had been interviewed, the name Carefree had been thrown around too often to be abandoned, and Darlington and Palmer found themselves with a community name they couldn’t shake even if they had wanted to.

Next began the development of the town’s infrastructure, including water mains and roads. The street names of the community followed the same Carefree idea: Lazy Lane, Peaceful Place, Easy Street, Primrose Path, Lucky Lane and the ever popular Ho-Hum which breaks off into Ho Road and Hum Road in the central business district.

Finally, with the original plat of Carefree recorded, strict building restrictions adopted, water lines and roads in place and lot corners staked, Darlington and Palmer were ready to begin the selling phase in 1957. Carefree was officially a community.

Carefree’s Neighbor Cave Creek
Although close in proximity, Carefree and its neighbor Cave Creek have vastly different histories. Cave Creek was founded in the 1870s as a gold mining town and a stopping point for the U.S. Calvalry. Profiting from the safety provided by the military presence, prospectors mined the hills and mountains of Cave Creek, and soon a modest gold boom ensued, although historians believe more money was made from manipulating gold shares than from actual ore strikes. In fact cattle and sheep ranching became the area’s most lucrative businesses by 1886.

In the 1920s, Cave Creek became home to a number of tubercular camps where people with this lung illness came for the curative properties of dry air and sunshine. Later, in the 1930s, Cave Creek became a recreational center for workers engaged in the construction of Horseshoe and Bartlett dams. At the same time, dude ranches began popping up in the area and novice cowboys came to Cave Creek to try their hands at cowboy living.

Cave Creek is the “old west” response to Carefree’s “new west.” During the planning phases of Carefree, there was some discussion of the community being constructed as a sub-division of Cave Creek. However, according to my grandfather, Cave Creek’s residents were “an independent-minded group of people, and it seemed unlikely that they would be easy to sell on the idea of a planned community.” Thanks to its architecture and its inhabitants’ independent spirit, Cave Creek has maintained its old west character and charm while metropolitan Phoenix continues to experience explosive growth just to the south. Cave Creek, featuring several well-known saloons, western shops, Rodeo events, art galleries and live music venues, has become one of the most recognized Western towns in the U.S. and remains reminiscent of what the Wild West must have been like a century ago.

A Community of Art and Culture
Part of what my grandfather envisioned for the community of Carefree was an emphasis on the arts. He pictured a place where the beauty of the natural environment—he buried the power lines wherever he could so that the horizon would remain unobstructed—would inspire artists, musicians and writers. The Town of Carefree has remained committed to the arts in its subsequent development. Today, arts festivals, public art installations and art galleries are all part of the Carefree scene.

Three times a year, the streets of downtown Carefree are closed, making room for more than 160 artists at the Carefree Fine Art and Wine Festival. Carefree’s beautiful setting provides the perfect backdrop for these celebrations of fine art, wine, live entertainment and gourmet food. Works of art on display range from monumental life-sized bronze sculptures to an array of pottery to photography and oil paintings. In addition, the festival holds the title of Arizona’s largest wine-tasting event, featuring first-class wines from Arizona, California, Australia, Germany, Austria, France and Italy. Not to be left out, many of Carefree’s restaurants and outdoor cafes provide food at the event.

In addition to hosting the Carefree Fine Art and Wine Festival, Carefree’s downtown area plays host to a number of unique shops, boutiques and galleries. One of these is the Wild Holly Gallery, housed in the Historic Bradbury building on the corner of Ho Hum Way at 22 Easy Street. Gallery founder Holly Pagliaro says, “Carefree inspired me to leave a pressure cooker executive job to open the Wild Holly Gallery.  So, K.T. Palmer’s vision of an artistic community came to fruition with my gallery!”

Today the Wild Holly Gallery represents 98 artists, among them Arthur Norby of Cave Creek. Norby created the charming outdoor installation in the Carefree Town Centre Park entitled Scott and Lauren. Originally conceived for a residence park in Sun City, Arizona, the piece is meant to engage its audience in the children’s conversation. As art consultant to the Town of Carefree in 2000, Norby gathered 20 works of art to create a temporary sculpture garden in the newly renovated Carefree Town Centre. Once the celebration reached its conclusion, several of the artists’ works remained as permanent installations, including Scott and Lauren. Several other works also remain in Carefree’s town center park to create a beautiful art arcade complete with flowing fountains and seating areas, and even a gila monster-themed slide for the kids. These works include, among others, a marble sculpture by John Bartolomeo entitled Ombra and a jagged pink metal spire by Hiram Dinehdeal entitled Endless Column. Unveiled in March, 2008 is the latest addition to the sculpture park: a lifesize bronze of a horse and rider, again by Arthur Norby, entitled Stampede at Javelina Crossing that will remain on display until it is purchased. Says Town Administrator, Jonathan Pearson, “Hopefully, in the future, more sculptures will be donated to the Town to further the arts as envisioned by Tom Darlington and K.T. Palmer.” Artists take note!

No discussion of public art in Carefree would be complete without mentioning the town’s attention-getting central attraction: its 72-foot sundial. Originally intended to be the largest in the world, the Carefree sundial, designed by architect Joe Wong in 1959, has had to content itself with at least second place after the ancient sundial of Samrath Yantra in Jaipur, India (150-feet). Nevertheless, the Carefree sundial with its copper-plated gnomon (the part that casts the shadow) is now one of the most photographed objects in central Arizona. Unfortunately, the hanging stained glass and wrought iron sunbursts that used to adorn the structure were removed in 2001 during the renovation of the town center. Not only is the sundial a beautiful piece of public art and an accurate public timepiece, it also functions as a solar-powered water heater. Today the monument bears my grandfather’s name, K.T. Palmer sundial, as a posthumous tribute to the spirit behind the community of Carefree.

Cave Creek offers its own contributions to the cultural life of the area. One example is the Cave Creek Museum whose collection profiles the pioneer families, pre-historic people and contemporary individuals who shape the Cave Creek/Carefree area. Showcased in the museum’s Ansbaugh Auditorium are four western bronzes by cowboy artist John Wade Hampton, co-founder of the Cowboy Artists of America. The bronzes bring to life the energy and dynamism of cowboys at work, with beautifully crafted horses and steers. Originally from New York, artist Hampton came to Cave Creek in 1963 where he both painted and created sculpture. It was also here that he came up with the idea for the Cowboy Artists of America association.

In addition to beautiful artwork, the museum is rife with historic remnants. In November 2002, the museum's original tubercular cabin, one of sixteen that made up a local camp, was placed on the National register of Historic Places. According to the Arizona Historical Society, this tuberculosis recovery cabin is the last remaining in Arizona. As my grandfather would attest, in the 1920s and 1930s cabins like these were the last hope for tuberculosis patients.

So while widely known as home to fabulous golf resorts like The Boulders, there is much more in Carefree to render a visit worthwhile. As that old brochure said, the Town remains a great place to shop, a place to challenge your golf skill, an exciting place to eat, a beautiful vacation area or home site, a very scenic interlude on a Sunday drive, and especially a center of art and culture nestled in some of the most beautiful desert in the world.

Wild Holly Gallery
22 Easy Street at the corner of Ho-Hum Way
480-595-8757
wildhollygallery.com
Open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Sunday 12 p.m. – 5 p.m.