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Saturday, July 07, 2007
Ghost town is the life of Capitol Reef
The only thing that isn't in Fruita is Fruita.
The town began in 1880 when Mormon pioneers settled next to the Fremont River and planted 2,700 fruit trees. Soon enough, cherries, apples, apricots, peaches, pears and plums appeared.
Plagued by harsh winters, isolation, really rugged (but beautiful!) terrain and the fact that the town lay along the Outlaw Trail frequented by Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch (charred timbers in Capitol Reef's Grand Gulch are believed to be from one of Butch's hideouts), Fruita didn't exactly flourish but due to all the good fruit it produced, it managed to stay alive for almost a century.
Fruita didn't officially die and become a ghost town until 1971, when the federal government - inspired by all that rugged but beautiful terrain - did what the winters, isolation and the Wild Bunch couldn't do.
It made the neighborhood, already a national monument, a national park. And killed the town. - More at Deseret News
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