Sleeping Bear Dunes

Lake Michigan near Platte River Campground

Fruita, UT(in Capitol Reef NP)

 

 Of all the places in Utah for Mormons to create a community, Fruita might be one of the most difficult. Fronted by tens of thousands of square miles of desert, along a wild river prone to serious flooding, and in an area so remote that paved roads did not arrive until the 1960s, it is perhaps of little wonder Fruita, for most of its life, was home to no more than eight to 10 families.

 Though no Dodge City or Tombstone, Fruita operated sort of on the fringe of Mormon social culture -- the town, for example, never had a church, and moonshining was not uncommon. And if Fruita was on the edge of Mormonism, it was also on the edge of lawfulness: polygamists, fleeing federal agents, often found shelter in the nearby maze of canyons, aided by sympathetic locals. Too, Butch Cassidy maintained a hideout nearby.

 The historic district contains cabins, barns, the one-room schoolhouse and, of course, the orchards. Originally the domain of the settlers and usually containing several varieties of fruit, Fruita's 22 orchards are gradually being replanted with the goal of having just one type of fruit come from each orchard -- a move that will greatly simplify maintenance.

Somewhere along desolate Utah I-70

Racquet Center Bloom