How did towns in the arid areas of the American West such as Arizona or Nevada deal with what must've been constant oppressive dust from riders and wagons and just traffic in general? I live and work in areas similar to these places and we have to use water trucks and/or gravel to mitigate the dust today.
I'm involved with an editing and transcribing project for the Journals of Alfred Doten, a daily record of the journalist's life in the American West from 1849 to his death in 1903. He spent the first thirteen years as a miner and farmer near California's Bay Area and then he spent the remainder of his life in Nevada mining camps.
Doten frequently writes about the need and gratitude for the community water wagon when it would pass through the neighborhood to put down dust during the dry summer months. During the wet autumn, winter and spring months, he was just as grateful when the local government put down boards for crossing streets, because the mud was just as much of a problem as the dust was in summer.
People got used to what they had (and what they didn't have) but they were always grateful for the amenities that existed - including the water wagon that sprayed the dust down.