Not really true. In the 19th century people in Congress believe that" rain followed the plow" and God would bring rain to the west if people turned it into farms. They let people homestead places like Arizona and it went terribly for the homesteaders. Later they spent lots of money on water projects to bring water to the places that needed it. But by that time the holdings have been consolidated and the homesteaders who survived had sold their holdings for next to nothing.