Today, the dammed Salt River is mostly dry in Phoenix. But visit the north-eastern outskirts of the city – where kayakers paddle the Salt past sienna mountains, cottonwoods and wild horses splashing along the shore – and you can sense the possibilities that greeted the Hohokam when they migrated here from southern Arizona. The Sonoran Desert is the world's most biodiverse desert. It provided ample plants and animals, in addition to the Hohokam's staple crops of maize, squash, beans and cotton.
