History

Native Americans have lived in the Capitol Reef area since around 7,000 BCE, using the area for hunting and gathering.

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History Details

Native Americans have lived in the Capitol Reef area since around 7,000 BCE, using the area for hunting and gathering. The Fremont people settled here around 1,300 CE, farming corn, beans and squash and leaving behind petroglyphs etched into rock walls. Explorers such as John Charles Fremont and John Wesley Powell visited the area in the 1850s and 1860s, and Mormon settlers established missions in the west's remote corners like the Capitol Reef area. In the 1870s, settlers moved into the area, eventually establishing Junction (later renamed Fruita), Clifton, Giles, Elephant, Caineville, Aldridge and Hanksville. In 1880, Nels Johnson moved into Capitol Reef country and staked a homestead in Fruita, where he recognized that the presence of water and heat that reflected off canyon walls made for fertile growing ground. Johnson planted the first orchards of apples, peaches, pears, plums, walnut, and almond trees. Fellow pioneer Elijah Cutler Behuni, along with others, cleared a wagon trail through Capitol Gorge, which allowed people to pass more easily through the Waterpocket Fold. Behunin also donated land for the Fruita Schoolhouse, completed in 1896. His 12-year-old daughter, Nettie, was the school's first teacher. The school remained open until 1941, although no more than 10 families ever lived at one time in the area. In 1937, Capitol Reef became a National Monument via a proclamation by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and achieved national park status in 1971. Dewey Gifford was one of the area's last settlers, raising his family in the the present day Gifford House and Museum. In their late 60s by 1969, Dewey and his wife Nell moved to Torrey, becoming the last settlers to leave Fruita.

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