Charles Miller

Charles Miller bought this corner and 120 acres around it from Scottsdale's founder Winfield Scott, then set about wiring the town into the modern age. In 1918 he and two partners founded the Scottsdale Light and Power Company, bringing the first electricity to a place still lit by lamp. He served on the board of the water users association that became the Salt River Project, and in 1922 he gave ten acres for Scottsdale High School. Miller Road carries his name today, a quiet marker of the civic groundwork the farm village needed to grow.

What the plaque says

An early civic leader of Scottsdale, Charles Miller purchased this property and 120 acres to the north and west from Scottsdale founder Winfield Scott. With two others he founded the Scottsdale Light and Power Company, which brought electricity to Scottsdale in 1918. He served on the board of the Salt River Valley Water Users Association, now the Salt River Project, in 1921, and in 1922 donated ten acres for Scottsdale High School. Miller Road is named in his honor. Bronze statue by Gerry Metz.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Taliesin West — 8.8 mi
  Frank Lloyd Wright's desert masterwork, grown from the ground it stands on
• Heard Museum — 9.1 mi
  The Native Southwest, told in the first person
• Phoenix — 9.6 mi
  The fifth-largest US city, built on the canals of a thousand-year-old one

More markers nearby

• Herb Drinkwater — 0.3 mi
• Winfield Scott Memorial — 0.4 mi
• The Little Red Schoolhouse — 0.4 mi
• Sterling Drug Store — 0.5 mi