Geography is everything. Especially in this corner of America. Ash Fork is an unincorporated town and as such, it has no police or municipal support. Most critical, as this is ‘high desert’ early residents could not simply dig wells to get water. For many years, water was brought in from miles away and pumped into water towers. It was not until 1970 that a grant was written (by Floyd Martin’s sister!) and approved by the state to dig the first of 3 wells. While it is listed to have a population of over 500 people, there is reason to believe, and locals will confirm, that there are a few thousand people in the surrounding area who would claim Ash Fork as home. In the past few years those numbers have grown. So here is what struck me… other than a few hundred people who live in town, there is no system to distribute the water. Every day you can find people lined up at the central well in the middle of Ash Fork with large reservoirs in the back of their trucks to take home and pump into a cistern. Thought experiment – how does this level of self-reliance change a person’s view of their state?

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