Shea Stanfield was born in Illinois in 1952. She moved to Phoenix, Arizona with her parents in 1957. She visited Cave Creek with her family in the 1960s and 1970s, and moved there in the 1990s. She describes the changes in Cave Creek attitudes towards open space and zoning through 2023. She also discusses her involvement in Cave Creek politics (serving on the Board of Adjustment, Planning and Zoning Board and Town Council) as well as her volunteer service to promote environmentalism, the arts community in Cave Creek and Carefree, and the Desert Foothills Theater.
She talks about Geoffrey Platts, an environmental activist who encouraged politicians to preserve the desert and water in and around Cave Creek and Scottsdale, AZ. He was also Scottsdale's first Poet Laureate.
An adventurer at heart, he came from England to Scottsdale in the 1980s, where he worked at the Camelback Inn, a resort that sought British staff to give it a high-class ambiance. Geoffrey became friends with James and Liz Lincoln, who also worked at the resort. When new management at the resort replaced the staff, the Lincolns moved to Cave Creek and Geoffrey followed them. Geoffrey moved into a small cabin in the Camp Creek area and would walk the approximate seven miles into Cave Creek when he needed supplies or to go to the post office. The cabin had no electricity or plumbing and was rent-free. Geoffrey made money by passing his hat after reading from the classics at salons in Cave Creek residents' homes.
In addition to writing poetry, he wrote copious post cards to local politicians to protest the building of golf courses, because the amount of water they require makes them unsuitable for the desert. He died in 2000 from drowning in the Verde River while saving his companion from drowning.