[quote=@TheSovereignGrave]
I don't think it'd be too difficult to build a sedentary civilization in a place like the Pacific Northwest, and that'd still technically be 'out West'. I'm just saying it's not all bone dry desert; though I suppose it depends on your definition of 'west'.

EDIT: Is anyone even planning on making one out west anyway? Is this even relevant?
[/quote]

The Pacific Coast doesn't usually fall under the regional classification of being "The West" or as it's more broadly known "The Mid-west", or even as Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico would be known: the south-west.

But California I've gathered as actually been more regularly dry than it has been wet according to research on tree-rings. Humans just happened to settle California during an unusual wet cycle and the current drought may actually be a return to regional norms for the southern west-coast.

There is a reason the Mormons drew their proposed country of Deserete so weird, and that's because they wanted all the land they thought no one would want because there's nothing there.

US took it anyways.