Alva Review-Courier -

CAMERON, Ariz. (AP) — Off a northern Arizona highway surrounded by pastel-colored desert is one of the starkest examples of drought's grip on the American Southwest: Dozens of dead horses surrounded by cracked earth, swirling dust and a ribbon of water that couldn't quench their thirst.

Flesh exposed and in various stages of decomposition, the carcasses form a circle around a dry watering hole sunken in the landscape.

It's clear this isn't the first time the animals have struggled. Skeletal remain are scattered on the fringes and in an adjacent ravine.

It's a symptom of a burgeoning wild horse...