Staying in Phoenix

Long ago, Native Americans lived in the state of Arizona. They lived in a place that is called Phoenix today. They were farmers. Their environment was very dry. It was a desert. A desert is an environment that gets less than ten inches of rain during a year. They dug great canals. They were ten feet deep and 30 feet wide. Canals are like man-made rivers--they are paths water flows in. The canals brought water from a river to the land. They used it to farm. That was long ago, and many years later the Native Americans left. 

Then in 1867, more than 100 years ago, more people came. They were settlers who moved to the area. They saw where the canals had been. Dirt had fallen into them, but they dug them again. Just as before, they got 
water to their land from the river. They named their new town Phoenix. 

For a while people were glad to settle in Phoenix, but then there was a drought. In summer the river dried up. Then they had no water, crops died, and it was difficult to get food. Some people gave up and moved away since they knew they might not have water all the time. 

People who stayed figured out a way to solve their problem. They built a dam. A dam is a wall that goes across a river. Some of the water can flow through it, but more water stays behind it. That water makes a kind of 
lake, which is called a reservoir. The people of Phoenix had water they could count on. They would open the dam when they needed more water for their crops. 

Today if you go to Phoenix you will see farms. You can buy fresh fruit and vegetables that grow there. You can see them growing all year. That is because it is always warm in Phoenix. In summer it is very hot because it is a desert. 
Today there are many more people living in Phoenix even though it is so hot and dry. They have the water they need and they also solved another problem. It was so hot in summer that people did not want to live here, 
but then someone invented a solution. He invented the air conditioner. Now that there is air conditioning, people can live in this very hot climate. They have come to stay in Phoenix.