Geography of the West

Contrary to popular opinion, the American West (between the 100th meridian and the Pacific Coast) is almost entirely barren desert. West of the 100th meridian line, also known as the 20-inch line, there are only a handful of locations which receive more than twenty inches of rain a year. The West is made up of large open plains and long mountain ranges and compared to the East Coast, is relatively new, geologically speaking.

On the Pacific Coast there are many large population centers and prosperous farms. The rain is seasonal-a downpour in the winter, with little or no rain in the summer. Farmers depend upon this seasonal rain. For instance, in the Central Valley, lettuce farmers loathe it when it rains during the summer because the rain is so hot that it burns the leaves of the plants. While this sounds like the "Mediterranean paradise" that California is made out to be, the Golden State, like its name suggests, was quite dry before we began to "reclaim" the land; originally during the summer months the hills would completely dry out and become golden. While most people are fooled by the mirage of verdant San Francisco, which is entirely man-made (when the Spanish arrived they found absolutely no trees on the Peninsula), most of the state is in fact a semi-desert. Southern California is even closer to a desert.

Most of the West is considerably more arid, though. As weather fronts move in from the coast they run into the Sierra Nevada and the Cascades. They are forced to release their heavy loads of water before continuing over the mountains. On the west side of the Sierra-Cascade crest there are places where 150 inches of precipitation is normal during a year. Just miles away on the other side of the crest the level of moisture drops and there can be as little as four inches of precipitation a year. These mountain ranges effectively stop any rain from making it into the Great Basin.

Past the Sierras and the Cascades there are only desolate plains. Once in a while there are contradictions, though. The Great Salt Lake is one of the few landmarks in the scorched thousands of millions of square miles of desert. The remnant of a prehistoric lake that covered the entire northwestern part of Utah, the Great Salt Lake is surrounded by a cluster of cities. Outside of the relatively small enclave of human communities, there are only plains of salt and other minerals left by the lake. Before the arrival of irrigation with the Mormons in the mid-19th century the area was completely barren. The Bonneville Salt Flats, surrounding the Great Salt Lake, are utterly desolate with few plants or animals in sight.

The Southwest is similar except for one important fact; it contains the largest river west of the Rocky Mountains, the Colorado. The Colorado River starts just west of the continental divide. From there it flows southwest until it takes a bend south and heads through Mexico to the Gulf of California, its outlet. The Colorado is the sole reason that people live, work, and farm in the southwest. Almost all of Southern California and Arizona completely depend on the river for life. Today it is so overused that rarely does any water reach the Gulf of California.

How could we possibly live in the American West? We can't, at least by natural means. While humans have lived in the West for thousands of years, our civilization is much more demanding. Fly over Las Vegas and you will see thousands of swimming pools. The water that fills those swimming pools and allows people to live and create huge resorts in the desert is not there naturally. It is piped from the Colorado River for the sole purpose of allowing us to inhabit the desert. Throughout the West we are trying to defy nature and conquer the open land. This has all come at a horrible cost though…