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.
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