Why were settlements started in places like Vegas and Pheonix if they weren’t connected to a river that connected to the ocean like the Mississippi River for trade and had no viable farmland?

Question

Why were settlements started in places like Vegas and Pheonix if they weren’t connected to a river that connected to the ocean like the Mississippi River for trade and had no viable farmland?

In: 4650

Answer 1

Some of those settlements can be old mining towns.

People find gold and silver out in the middle of nowhere and someone else sets up a store and shit the miners need to work. Eventually it becomes a town.