The water gods must be propitiated. One way is for each community in the arid lands to dedicate a fountain to the divinity of water. Where water is abundant, as in St. Louis, a fountain is less meaningful, beyond the mere beauty of it, than a fountain where water is scarce. Southwesterners should be taught from childhood that the source of their water lies beyond the faucet.


Lawrence Clark Powell. Southwest: Three Definitions. Singing Wind Bookstore. 1990. p.65