In the spring of 1882 Ebenezer Hanks, Ebenezer McDougall, Joseph
Sylvester, Charles Gould, and Samuel Gould moved with their
families from Washington County to the junction of the Fremont and
Muddy rivers in what is now eastern Wayne County. This early
settlement in what was known as Graves Valley--a name applied to
the area by John Wesley Powell survey expedition member Walter
Graves, who had mapped the region--developed into the community of
Hanksville.
In the summer of 1882 the General Land Office let contracts for
the surveying of townships along the Fremont River from Capitol
Reef eastward to Hanksville. These surveys were completed by the
spring of 1883, allowing the earliest settlers to file and
establish orderly land claims.
The small community developed quickly; postal service from Green
River was established in 1883 with a delivery three times a week.
The mail was carried by pony express and the rider would make the
110-mile round trip in two days. The community's name was changed
to Hanksville in 1885, and by 1890 twenty families had moved to the
valley and maintained permanent residences there.
Telephone service began in 1913 under a cooperative plan
connecting Hanksville to Fruita and other communities in the
county. This service was updated in 1960. Hanksville did not
receive electricity until 1960; before 1960 many residents operated
individual generators run on butane or diesel fuel.
The early settlers depended on culinary and irrigation water
from the Fremont River. Culinary water improved in 1933 when a well
was drilled that was financed by the Drought Relief Commission; a
second well as completed in 1939 by the Civilian Conservation
Corps.
A Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) airport was constructed five
miles north of Hanksville in 1945. This station still functions as
an emergency landing strip and provides current weather data to the
busy Los Angeles to Denver route utilized by commercial, private,
and military air traffic.
In 1959 a schoolhouse was completed to replace the two-room unit
that had housed eight grades since the early organization of the
community. At present high school students ride the bus to
Bicknell.
Hanksville has always been a hub for mining activity in the
area. In 1889 J. C. Summer and Jack Butler developed the Bromide
mine in the Henry Mountains. The Turner mine was discovered shortly
thereafter; and mine operators treated their ore at Crescent Creek.
Today the economy of the area depends heavily upon mining,
agriculture, and tourists heading south to Lake Powell. The 1990
census recorded a population of 129 in Hanksville.