OCR Text |
Show Colorful Hanksville Now Celebrating 9 1 st Year Since Settlement By Barbara Ekker When you're 91 you like to brag a little. Well. . .Hanksville is having a birthday. It was in the summer of 1881 that Ebenezar Hanks made a trip from Bel-view, Bel-view, Iron County, Utah to Sevier Valley where he met A.K. Thurber who told him of a valley lying north of the Henry Mountains which contained con-tained considerable grasslands. Hanks was interested so encouaged a group of friends to join him and his family in pioneering this new frontier. So early in the spring of 1882 Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Gould,' the Sam Goulds, E. II. Mc Doug-alls, Doug-alls, and the Joe Sylvesters Syl-vesters began their trek down the Fremont Rivet-to Rivet-to Blue Valley. From there they went southeast south-east about eight miles to avoid crossing the river so many times and then turned north again. Hearing such good reports re-ports from the Hanks parly other Iron County residents began locating in the valley and these families included the Kings, Bacons, Rich, Sutton, Stuarts, Stod-dards, Stod-dards, Gibbons, Rust, Mecham, Ekker, Weber, Hall and Turner. These families built homes, planted crops, raised cattle and prospered. Peter Brown is reported to have engineered the building of the first dam on the Fremont River from who's water this valley has always been irrigated. The fo'od supply sup-ply was suplemented by )wild cattle in the Henry Mountains and deer and .antelope. Most of the first homes were of log ' but a Blue Valley resi-; resi-; dent, N.J. Nielson, in- trodticed the use of adobe 'and many homes of this material are still stand- ing today. About 1802 a vein of I gold was discovered on I the east side of the Hcn-I Hcn-I ry Mounla ins which brought miners from all walks of life to the area. These people were mixed mix-ed with cattle and sheep owners who were finding this area very suitable for grazing. This.' of course brought in the colorful outlaw. Butch Cassidy and his famed Wild Bunch, who rustled cattle, robbed banks, and hid out at the famed Robber's Roost east of Hanksville. Anderson was to have had the first store but was soon bought out by Charles Gibbons who spread the business to a hotel. livery stable, freighting business, and general mercantile. The Frank Webers had a boarding house which usually catered to the local school teacher. For years the Fremont Fre-mont river was a source of culinary as well as irrigation water. It was not until the middle 30's that the government financed fi-nanced the drilling of an artesian well south of town. Later in the 50's other wells were drilled by Harry Phillips to increase in-crease the flow to the individual homes. In 1038 a CCC camp locak d in Hanksville and remained for four years. During this time roads were built into the Henry ' Mountain Sawmill Basin area as well as water reservoirs which are still being used today by stockmen. For many years Hanksville Hanks-ville was a branch of the Blue Valley Ward. Ebenezar Hanks was the first presiding elder. A ward was organized in 1935 with Glen P. Johnson John-son as it's bishop. The FA A built an airport five miles north of town in 1015 and this was home for nine families. This was remote to Cedar City in 10(55 and the families moved into Hanksville in new modern mod-ern homes and still maintenance is an important im-portant part of this facility. fa-cility. A $()(), 000 school was built in 191)3 on the site of the former adobe two room unit. There are 25 students, 2 teachers and a school lunch room next door. The school handles grades one thru six and the older high school students are bussed bus-sed daily to Bicknell 60 miles west. From it's small remote re-mote beginning Hanksville Hanks-ville is now a mecca for tourists, boaters, rock hounds, geology students, senior citizens, citi-zens, retired persons, miners, business folks and even medical persons. per-sons. The Hanksville Medical Medi-cal Clinic is a new addition ad-dition in the last year wilh aid and help inper-sonel inper-sonel and equipment coming from all points of Utah and even out-of-state. This facility has been needed for a long time and has seen 1,075 persons since it's beginning be-ginning last June. Hanksville's oldest citizen is Frank Lawler who is now residing at a nursing home in Price, Utah following a fall when his hip was broken. The lady of the community com-munity who can recall 'old times' like it was yesterday is Mrs. Edna Ekker Robison who will be celebrating her 82nd birthday June 1st. The town has grown in stature since it's early beginning of a general gen-eral store and livery stable to busy motels, restaurants, service stations, laundrys and new modern homes. New building such as the newly constructed LDS Chapel and recreation hall have risen in the last year and towers above the rock masoned chapel across the street which is still a historic site and is now the community com-munity hall. Dances are held quite regularly and music furnished by a local lo-cal group of musicians. Wilh talent in any field from rock polishing, painting, weaving, fancy work, gardening, landscaping land-scaping popping forth all the time Hanksville has no direction (o go now bul UP. HAPPY BIRTH-( BIRTH-( DAY HANKSVILLE. |