Kilns once used to extract lime from the local limestone are still in Sulphur Creek and near the campgrounds on Scenic Drive. (6) Limestone was heated up in lime kilns to produce the very caustic "quicklime" (also known as burnt lime and unslaked lime). When water was added to the quicklime, it became less caustic "slaked lime" or "hydrated lime," and was ready for use. Lime could be used for buildings, as well as a paste to put on young trees, to protect them from insect damage.

Water from the Fremont River was diverted to run a grist mill a few miles west of Torrey. The grist mill was important to the small surrounding communities for grinding their wheat into flour. Most of these have now vanished, just as many of the original towns in the area such as Aldridge, Clifton, Giles, and Elephant. None of them proved to be sustainable, and many were washed away in floods along the Fremont River.

Ranching cattle and sheep was a common way to earn a living, although the rangeland was often marginal. Cattle were grazed in what is now the park, including in the South Desert and Cathedral Valley. Sheep often were grazed on Boulder Mountain, and can still be found there today. Most of the grazing is on public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) or the US Forest Service (USFS). It is comparatively inexpensive to graze one "animal unit" (a cow and calf, a horse, or five sheep) for one month on public lands. In 2022, the cost is $1.35/animal unit/month and 85.6% of Wayne County is federal public land. Grazing mostly takes place on the BLM and USFS lands in Wayne County, with one allotment left inside Capitol Reef National Park.

Ranching is still a part of Wayne County's local economy, and agricultural jobs (whether farming, ranching, fishing) account for 8.5% of the workforce. Farms are only 3% of Wayne County land.

Evidence of Capitol Reef's ranching past remains. The Morrell Cabin was originally built by Paul Christensen in the 1920s on Thousand Lake Mountain just to the west of Capitol Reef. It was then used as a summer logging camp. The cabin was moved to its present location in Cathedral Valley by Lesley Morrell sometime in the 1930s. Locally known as Les’s cabin, it was kept furnished and stocked as a cowboy line camp, open to all who needed a bunk or a meal. This tradition ended in 1970 when the National Park Service purchased the property.

With a rugged backdrop of painted badlands and the complete isolation of Cathedral Valley, visiting Morrell Cabin gives one the feeling of taking a step back in time. Without the presence of modern developments or the sounds of a city, the cabin feels about the same way it did for the cowboys of the early 1900s. In the past, visitors to the cabin have left mementos, artifacts and poetry: a shrine to loneliness and solitude or maybe out of respect for a bygone era. Maybe for the dusty cowboy or weary traveler who needed shelter and a plate of beans before continuing on his way. The ghosts of days past reside here. Remember to Leave No Trace of your visit.

The Morrell Cabin is located two miles north of the Hartnet Junction on the Cathedral Valley Loop. This section of Capitol Reef National Park is less visited and requires high clearance vehicles to access. It’s a chance to really experience the park’s history in its purest form.

Capitol Reef is known for its historic orchards with heirloom varieties of fruit. For the early pioneers, fruit was one of the few easy ways to satisfy your sweet tooth. While sugar/sweetness can come from a variety of sources (sugar cane, sugar beets, fruit, honey, etc.) many of those options were fairly expensive and hard to get into the early 1900s, especially in a rural place like Wayne County. The community of Fruita was an ideal place to plants orchards (even compared to Torrey and Loa) because of the longer growing season, lower elevation, access to easy irrigation water from the Fremont River, and the microclimate created by the red cliffs.

Fruit was a valuable commodity, and residents of Fruita often bartered and traded with their apples, pears, peaches, plums, apricots, and cherries for necessities like hay, grain, cheese, potatoes, and pigs. The small farms were planted with a variety of fruit that ripened throughout the early summer and into fall. This was a key way to provide income throughout harvest season. Cherries and apricots ripened first, while apples and pears ripened late in the summer and early fall.

At first, locals would sell their fruit within the county, or trade it for other goods. Later, trucks took fruit to Salt Lake City, Ely (NV), and Nebraska. Once refrigeration was more widely available (after World War I), fruit could be shipped longer distances. For the farmers in Fruita, though, most of the heirloom varieties didn't ship well, since they bruised easily and ripened too quickly. Commercial fruit operations took over, and people began planting different varieties that shipped well, held their color, and didn't ripen too quickly; taste became less important. The Fruita orchards became less profitable with the advent of large-scale commercial orchards and refrigerated trucks.

Another aspect of the fruit economy was hiring people to harvest it. Historically families from Wayne County were the primary pickers, with people of all ages pitching in to help. Sometimes families came from as far away as Koosharem, which was a four-day trip by buckboard. Families would pick fruit, and then can or bottle it on-site. Dried fruit could be sold and shipped farther.

At first, the Fruita orchards were owned and managed privately, but once the park bought the land, management changed. For years, the park allowed local residents to manage the orchards, set prices, and sell fruit. Then the park leased the orchards, and more recently, the park took over management of the orchards with a horticulturalist and orchard manager. Now visitors are allowed to pick fruit when it is in season (check the website or ask at the visitor center if anything is ripe for harvest).