[2] Grand County is home to one of the nine statewide regional campuses of Utah State University (located in the city of Moab) and serves as a gateway to both Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.

An Elk Mountain Mission was established but closed after a few months due to Indian raids.

Mormon settlers began planting fruit trees by 1879, and by 1910 Moab was a significant fruit-production center.

Exploration for deep petroleum deposits began in the 1920s, and this industry has significantly contributed to the economy since that time.

The Green River flows southward through the eastern part of central Utah, and its meandering course defines the western border of Grand County.

Grand County terrain is arid, rough, and spectacularly carved by water and wind erosion, exposing red rock formations that have created a solid tourist industry.

Its highest point is Mount Waas in the SE part of the county, at 12,336 ft (3,760 m) ASL.

[6] Deserts, cliffs and plateaus make up the scenery, with few settlements apart from the city of Moab, a Colorado River oasis.

[18] Historically, following the period of William Jennings Bryan and Woodrow Wilson, Grand County has generally voted Republican.

Between 1920 and 1988 (inclusive), it voted Democratic only four times: thrice for Franklin Roosevelt, and once for Lyndon Johnson.

However, it has become a swing county in recent years, voting Democratic four times in the last nine presidential elections (for Bill Clinton in 1992, Barack Obama in 2008, Joe Biden in 2020, and Kamala Harris in 2024).

[24] Grand County was an epicenter of the Sagebrush Rebellion, which took place during the late 1970s and early 1980s when residents protested what they saw as overreaching Federal control of Western US land.

An early event in the Rebellion was July 4, 1980, when 300 Grand County residents gathered behind a flag-decorated bulldozer in protest of the inclusion of Mill Creek Canyon as part of a Bureau of Land Management wilderness study area.

The Denver Museum of Natural History opened a small Cedar Mountain Formation quarry that has produced diverse dinosaur fossils including theropod, sauropod and ornithopod.