The county can be best described as "rural diversified" due to the convergence of agricultural, retail and industrial activities.

Richfield has developed as a regional tourist center because it is located on the interstate freeway about halfway between Los Angeles, California and Denver, Colorado, attracting many automobile travelers who stop at the city.

"[5] Many people from the region drive to Richfield to shop, bowl, golf, to attend theater, concerts, or for religious gatherings.

In the late summer of 1776, Father Escalante and his party of Spanish explorers passed through the general vicinity, looking for a trail to link Nuevo Mexico and California.

Sevier County lay on one of the variants on the Old Spanish Trail between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and California and was used by travelers between 1830 and 1850.

In early January 1864, a party of ten men under the leadership of Albert Lewis came from Sanpete County, Utah, and arrived in what is now Richfield.

The Mormon settlers found fertile soil, good water, and wood in the nearby hills.

These pioneers made a dwelling place for all ten men, which they called 'The Hole in the Ground.'

They carefully covered this hole with brush willows and other materials and made a crude chimney of rocks.

The early Mormon settlements were abandoned in 1867 due to the conflict known as the Black Hawk War.

The coming of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad in 1891 opened the valley for expanded agricultural commerce and mining.

In 1939, Utah Governor Henry H. Blood vetoed a proposal for a junior college in Richfield.

Fifty-seven years later, Snow College opened a Richfield campus, which serves about 600 students annually.

[6] Following direction from Brigham Young, Latter-day Saints founded the town and outlying hamlets about 150 years ago.

[8] Due largely to combined influences of conservative rural culture and the Latter-day Saints, the voters of the city and the surrounding county are predominately Republican.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 5.3 square miles (14 km2), all land.

Richfield experiences a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk) with four distinct seasons.

From July through September, “monsoonal” thunderstorms frequently form over the nearby peaks contributing to over a third of the 8.12 inches or 206.2 millimetres of annual rainfall.