The Great Brown's Ranch Land War

McDowell Sonoran Conservancy / PastFinders

All hell broke loose when, in February 1947, Ellsworth Edwin Brown – known as “Big Brownie” around Scottsdale – purchased 27,000 acres of land in northwestern Arizona with the intention of exchanging it for 16,000 acres of public land adjoining Brown’s Ranch.  Before the dust settled two years later, the conflict over Big Brownie’s planned exchange sucked in four United States Senators, the one and only Arizona Congressman, three federal bureau directors, one presidential cabinet member, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the state stockmen’s association, the CEO of the state’s largest bank, the founders of Carefree, several law firms, and 70 prominent local businessmen. 

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