Hard, unfriendly, and uneducated.
I'm in Salt Lake City. The fastest possible history lesson I could give is this; there used to be this huge body of water called Lake Bonneville. Then it dried up, leaving the Great Salt Lake. Then people moved in.
As a result, what isn't gravel in the valley is clay-ish. I can't get a screwdriver more than 1.5" into the soil without watering first. After watering, I can get it in 2.5"