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

Las Vegas literally means “the meadows”. it sits right next to the Colorado River and was an oasis flood plane in the middle of the Mohave desert before we built the Hoover Dam. Las Vegas was always a place for life specifically because of the river it is connected to.