". . . With few sources of water and difficult-to-find places for shade, the Southwestern Mojave is a dangerous enough place. The people who actually live out here are almost always as sun-crazed and violently paranoid as the gila monsters, buzzards, coyote and kit fox that inhabit these regions. . . ."
Full story:FrenchFriesintheAmericanSouthwest by Frederick L. Rice