Full at http://blog.cheapmotelsandahotplate.org (I'll bet there is not another
travel essay about southern Utah that
includes the words "Marx" and "simple commodity production.")
We left Capitol Reef, wishing we could stay longer. The last leg of our trip
would take us to one of our favorite haunts—Moab. The drive time is about four
hours, but the nice thing about Utah is that the traveling is almost as
enjoyable as the destination. There is seldom a boring mile. Most of the trip
is along Utah 24, another “scenic byway,” not completely paved until the 1960s.
After the Mormons colonized the southeastern part of Utah, in the years
following the expedition through the Hole in the Rock, they began to backtrack
westward and establish settlements. Some of the land surrounding the Fremont
River was suitable for farming and ranching, and communities were formed in
Hanksville, Caineville, Torrey, and Fruita. The last one was the most
interesting. Founded around 1880 and originally named Junction because it was
at the confluence of the river and Sulphur Creek, Fruita (pronounced
“froot-uh”) became famous for its fruit trees. The village itself never housed
more than a few families, but the orchards helped them to prosper. Utah.com
tells us:
Though it never comprised more than 300 acres Fruita — originally called
Junction — became an important settlement due to its relatively long growing
season and abundant water. Settlers from nearby Torrey and Loa — which each
have 90-day growing seasons — arrived in Fruita and planted thousands of trees
bearing Jonathan, Rome Beauty, Ben Davis, Red Astrachan, Twenty-Ounce Pippin
and Yellow Transparent apples, Morpark apricots, Elberta peaches, Bartlett
pears, Fellenburg plums, and the Potawatomi plum. Settlers also planted English
and black walnuts and almonds. Grape arbors appeared later.
The author might have added, but Anglos rarely do, that the Mormons in Fruita
took advantage of irrigation paths first constructed by the true first
settlers, the indigenous Americans.
Most production in Fruita was either consumed domestically or bartered; if
money was needed, the fruit could be sold in larger towns such as Richfield.
The son of a school teachers at the one-room school that still sits beneath the
cliffs that line the river remembers his parents owning a 1924 Chevy. His
father was principal at the “big” school in Torrey and drove the car down the
dirt road to be with his family in Fruita every weekend. Cash might have been
needed for this automobile, though goods could have been traded for it. In
either case, the economy of Fruita was what Marx called simple commodity
production; at most money was a medium of exchange and the accumulation of
capital was not in evidence. It also appears that Fruita was not a diehard
Mormon community. There was never an LDS church, and residents don’t seem to
have minded an occasional drink or a visit from local outlaws.
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