I don't know if you've been to the California high desert
Now, I don't know if you've been to the High Desert. The true Mojave. It's its own experience. The high desert sits between 2000 and 4000 feet in a broad, high salt plain that is itself a saddle between two sierras.
One of the larger settlements in the area is called Joshua Tree (U2 fans will take note here). And Joshua Tree is a great example of how settlements are possible. In their case it involves digging a lot of wells.
Now, you can't dig a shallow well in Joshua Tree, because you'll only hit the saline water that's riding on the shale beneath the desert. But, you can drill farther down, literally hundreds of feet, and hit the fresh water in the aquifer down below. And so that's what they do. So Joshua Tree is surrounded by local very deep wells that reach way down into that aquifer to draw fresh water up.
One family had just run out in their current well and sunk a new one, but to their horror their burro (and burros are still used here for transport) went out in the morning and fell down the well, making them all run out and rescue him. But it wasn't just once. The next morning, they heard the same pathetic braying, and all ran out and rescued him from the well again. And the next morning, again. And the next morning, again.
In desperation, they called the large animal veterinarian, who flew in from the Central Valley. He looked at the burro, and looked at the well, and said, "I've figured out the problem."
They all rushed over to hear his diagnosis: "He can't see that well."
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I had no idea this was going to turn into a joke.
Well done. 
