Desert Oasis - Capitol Reef National Park Story

[Transcript]

Why are fruit orchards growing inside a national park, you ask? Well, the human story of Capitol Reef is one of perseverance. Flash floods, droughts, and scarce resources all posed a threat. It wasn't until the late 1800s that anyone tried to make permanent settlements in the region. 

Many didn't survive. The village of Fruita, however, proved to have some staying power. Fruita is situated inside the park at the junction of Sulphur Creek and the Fremont River. 

The river was essential to life in Fruita and was used to irrigate orchards and farms. Thanks to its upriver location, Fruita was spared the devastating floods that doomed settlements like Aldridge and Caneville. In the early days, residents picked up their mail at a cottonwood tree called the Mail Tree. 

Can't get more quaint and old-timey than that. You can picnic under that same tree today. I'll point it out when we drive by. 

At its most populated, only 10 families lived in Fruita. That may not sound like a lot until you remember some of those families had as many as 13 children. Now that, my friends, is a lot of diapers. 

In 1952, the road to Fruita was finally paved and the tourists came flooding in. The town was changing, and for at least one Fruita resident, that was a bad thing. We'll talk about her later in the tour. 

Only a few original buildings still stand today. Most importantly, the orchards, planted more than a hundred years ago, still produce absolutely delicious fruit. Some varieties only grow in Fruita and nowhere else in the world.