Hacker News Reader

The fact that people live there doesn't make it desirable. People will always defend where they live. Don't be naive.

The land around the Ouchita Mountains is not shitty at all. In fact it’s gorgeous.

Mountains are gorgeous when you have plenty of food and shelter, like we do now. They're shitty if you're a subsistence farmer in the 1800's.

I highly encourage the OP to make this point, too.