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Show o Seuili Ceukat Ufali Supplement To: Gunnison Valley News - The Salina Sun Garfield County News - The Richfield Reaper VOLUME NUMBER 3 WEDNESDAY, MAY 12, 19 1982 Hanksville's First Century One of Unity, Progress maker with the John Wesley Powell party who passed this way in the early By Barbara Ekker Spotlight Correspondent Ebenezer Hanks County and began a community that its 100 years April of 1870s. In the spring of 1882, guided a group of Washington County residents into the lush valley where the Fremont and Muddy Rivers meet in lower Wayne HANKSVILLE celebrated and raised eight daughters and many them live in Green River. 1. Hanks was accompanied by his plural wives, Sarah Bean Hanks and Jane Wells Cooper and Sarah and Ebenezers nine children and their families. They were joined by their daughters husbands, Ebenzer Hanks McDougall, Charles Gould, Joseph Sylvester and Sam Gould and hi wife. The settlement was called Graves Valley by these pioneers. Stories can vary on this naming. Some say the freshly mounded graves in the area when they arrived. Others say that a horse wrangler by the name of Peter Grave was residing here. According to the History Of The Henry Mountains by Charles Hunt, the community was named for Walter Graves, a map Records of these pioneers tell how But the name was changed to they killed wild beef on the Henry Hanksville in 1885 when the first post Mountains left there by Bean and office was established and 20 families Forest, cattlemen from Colorado who were residing here. had sold out to Tusher of Moab who hadnt been able to gather them all Hanks died April 4, 1884, just two when he left. his arrival, and a son, years after Marion, was born a month after his By 1890 the community was well death. Sarah took her small children established. Homes were built from and moved back to her home in Iron logs cut on the north slopes of the Henry County and worked in the woolen mills Mountains or of adobe. Cattle and there until she met and married Henry sheep were introduced in large herds Burnell. by A1 Stevens, Riddle and McCallister, Rust and Giles. They returned to Hanksville and Postal service three times a week Burnell became the postmaster here. from the main office and railroad lines Burnell and Sarah had a daughter, Maggie, and her son, Spencer now lives in Green River began in 1883. Mail was carried by pony express to the mining in Manti. Jane Hanks, who was on the Coloroad River near Hite to camps Mt. moved and childless, Pleasant, and to the gold mining camps near helped raise and school the older Eagle City in the Henry Mountains children of her late husband. Ebenezer Hanks, Jr. became a daily. No matter what you read in the Presbyterian minister and served in western paperbacks, no incidents of highway robbery or Indian attacks ever the Richfield area until his death. bothered these Wayne riders. Charles Hanks married Alice Lance The present dam on the Fremont River west of town was built in 1910 and had a reservoir depth of 25 feet. By 1913 it was filled with silt. An ample supply of water for irrigation is still a pressing problem. Mountain Bell finished its $83,000 project to Hanksville via of Green River in 1960. Garkane Power Company finshed its lines into Hanksville the same year but residents had electricity for many years prior to this by the use of generating plants powered by propane or diesel fuel. seven children were stricken with polio which claimed one. dance hall. Then a two room unit served the community and eight grades until 1959 when a $70,000 building was erected on the site of the old building. Additions of a multipurpose room (gym), school lunch kitchen, and a double wide trailer in the last three years are now serving the near GO students enrolled. Some 48 children in 6th through 12th gardes ride the bus daily to Bicknell to attend middle and high school classes. A medical clinic was begun in 1972 and held regular hours in a former pool hall donated by Edna Ekker Robison, a former midwife who had delivered many of the younger residents. The clinic's founder, Dr. Eugene died a year later in an airplane Davies, Movies were shown weekly at the crash and the rural clinic ended until Community Hall building and viewers Sue Allen, nurse practioneer from visited during reel changes. Green River began seeing patients here For many years Hanksville was a on a once a week basis that served the branch of the Blue Valley LDS Ward community needs for three years. with presiding elders handling church Presently the Wayne County Clinic affairs in Hanksville. The first LDS from Bicknell serves the community. Ward was established here in 1935 and the first bishop was Glen P. Johnson. His son, Gordon Kent Johnson, is the present bishop. A new LDS chapel was built in 1967 and the old building was purchased from the church by 25 residents who wished to preserve it for a community hall. The first school was a small log one room building near the present in4 tersection off and east of town. Then another building was used One of the most important prior to the building, of the LDS developments in the area took place in by Fran Weber which served chapel as a 1933 when the Drougth Relief Comand school, church, meeting place, mission financed the drilling of a water well. Prior to this event water was hauled from the river and settled in cisterns. The well was drilled to a depth of 332 feet by A.J. Denny. U-2- 5 1 The first chamber of commerce in Wayne County began in Hanksville in 1962 with Horace Ekker, Ford Weber, Kay Hunt, and Arvid Hess as president and directors and Barbara Ekker as secretary. This group sponsored the (Continued on Page 6 i A second well was drilled in 1939 when the CCC camp was established here and was situated where the present BLM compound is located. Now many wells are owned privately and a new culinary water system has been Utah was admitted to the Union in installed. but this section of the state was The FAA airport opened in 1945 with recovering from the ravages of floods that wiped out communities between many homes and utility buildings built Capitol Reef and Hanksville. Diaries of north of Hanksville. This government pioneers tell of homes and outbuildings agency abandoned this service in 1965 along with livestock coming down the and all services removed to Cedar City. Fremont River and salvaged at Two $20,000 homes were built in town for the maintenance men and homes at Hanksville. the airport were sold to local residents A telephone line was in use from and moved the five miles into town. Fruita (now Capitol Reef) to Notam and Caineville in 1913. Diaries of E.T. The community has been plagued Wolverton tell of calling his sons in with epidemics that have taken lives Green River from Notom Ranch and left victims. In 1937, spinal requesting supplies for his mill on Mt. meningitis took three lives, and in 1951 Pennell. This line was abandoned around 1926 and hasnt had service since in that area. 1896 This crude wood cabin served as Hanksville's first school and was built in the late 1800s. It has since been torn down, but this rare photograph shows a porch in front, covered with brush and tree limbs. t The school and church in Hanksville as they looked in 1938, served as the center of community life for many The Char.es Gibbons boarding house and store, built in the late 1800s was a source of supplies to Butch Cassidy and his friends, the Wild Bunch. The structure was located in Hanksville for many years. f. kLU. years. The church, on the right, was constructed in The old school, on the left, was razed in i960 1890-191- 0. The dress of the day, including overalls and long dresses, is shown in this picture of the Hanksville school studentbody in 1917. Joseph Hickman was superintendent and is shown on the right of the photo. - Handicapped Children Really Just Want a Chance Just give em a chance is an old saying that can apply to intellectually handicapped children, according to Mrs. Ann Shrotz, master teacher of the local Special Education Program. The program is taught in Gunnison in both the elementary and high schools. qualifying students come from as far north as Mt. Pleasant and as far south as the town of Sevier. At least five more children have been enrolled in next years program. Twenty-on- e began in Gunnison 1972 in with six students. Elementary Darrell Warren was then principal and strongly supported the early stages of the program, which was begun in Gunnison because of its central location and The program because it had available space. Warren has continued to work closely with the program and is presently director of the South Sanpete Special Education. Rodney Anderson, who has been principal of Gunnison Elementary since 1978, initiated the program and was the first director. He is still very supportive of the program which has grown to include students ranging in ages from 5 to 18. Elizabeth Jensen, who presently teaches first grade, taught the handicapped students for eight years and through her the children in the elementary are, and have been, an accepted part of the school for enough years that they automatically perform with the rest of the school in the annual Christmas and May Day programs. They also have friends and many acquaintances of their own chronologcial age. This year the six teenagers were transferred to the high school where their main classroom is as much a part of the school as the science room or agriculture department. Moving the older students to the high school was mainly a social move which has been largely accepted by both school personnel and the student body. According to Mrs. Shrotz, it's pretty silly to expect a teenager to get excited about going out for an elementary school recess. Now they are given an opportunity to mingle with their peers, eat lunch with them, attend dances, ball games and other activities most teenagers take for granted. There are more similarities than to be found in teenagers said Mrs. Shrotz. Intellectually handicapped teenagers can have the same tears, frustrations and moods as any teenager. Their presence in a public school helps build their self-estee- Terry Tohara, Manti, was recently hired by the South Sanpete School District to instruct these high school students along with Renae Hyatt, Gunnison, as aide. Mrs. Shrotz was finding it tough to keep track of both classes and do them justice, even with competent aides Connie Thalman. Richfield, and Donna Pritchard, Ephraim The instruction in public schools lor mentally retarded children has made great strides in the past 10 years. resulting in allowing many to reach their potential in the academic skills, so that their vocal achievement and job placement will be most appropriate for their abilities. The trick is to begin to help develop the minds of these children at an early age. Often well meaning individuals anticipating their child's wants and needs, and disallowing him an opportunity to fend for himself. This behavior prevents the child Irom obtaining his highest lunctional level, language particularly in the and social skills. The school environment has proven to have a definite strong influence on the level of intelligence, officials say. over-protec- t, self-hel- Some parents can also feel stigma of society against their child and feel there is no hope tor that child to ever become a reqxiixible adult Other parents hae a ban! tine accepting the trutn and either dose their eyes to the problem and hope it w ill go away, or go the opposite extreme and push their children beyond their capabilities which then frustrates both child and parent. The child, pressured by an academic pace they cannot master, follows farther behind, develops unusual behavioral mannerism which further compounds any academic progress. The cost of teaching these youngsters is expensive about $2700 a year per child. But. reasons Mrs. Shrotz, that cost is far less than placing the same child in an institution where there is little chance of growth as a capable human being. By giving the child a chance to relate to the every day world, he can often become a responsible, inadult rather dependent, than a tax payer's burden, she adds. g Money to run the program comes from federal, state and local school districts, but officials say. it is not enough. The mam reason ,or the added expense is that the materials iwit to educate don't stop with just school books and the visual aids seen in most classrooms. Manipulating toys, a therapeutic ball, even a wedge for a wheelchair aie expensiv The children are not only learning to use their minds, they olten need specialized help and equipment to educate ineir bodies These students need constant and thorough repetition of what they have learned Yet, once learned it becomes a skill not easily forgotten It just takes - a breed longer to see that e g a ot dog or that a nu kle re s t l.ie.c i. led i'll, F S Ounce: io ei ,.ji'd;i. terested persons has been organized to help serve these children. They are parents, teachers, and people wanting to help, and they represent North Sanpete. South Sanpete and Sevier School Districts. The purposes ter forming the organ. mt .!" ,i m .upp ' . p one nnuthei .! In C.H the -t , I : ' abre.'i- ot -' relatim edue.i't'p. "d' ipp :a tv. n nn.t s ":t handicap and to inform their own com- i . : Continued on Page 6) v |
