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Show Improvements Mark Hanksville 87th Birthday : Bv Barbara Ekkor , month was Hanks-871h Hanks-871h birthday. S.m-e fanning early in 182 . L Ebenoazer Hanks was J ,od by A. E. Thurb.r ; , into this area to .' the fertile soil Hanks-i Hanks-i has changed slowly . vprv progressively. inksviHc to some who L not know, is located of the Henry Moun-Js Moun-Js in southern Wayne intv. The roaring Fre- "7 River and the Dirty Wi! River cross the county f oaiy the Fremont bene-ts bene-ts this valley with it's wall wa-ll supply for irrigation. H'over the 87 years HanKS-tje HanKS-tje has gained some and st some business underlets under-lets and residents. The t camp built in 1938 south town brought improve-:,cnts improve-:,cnts to the outlaying roads especially into the .Henry Mountain- area. The FA A airport built in 1945 .gave employment to nine mi-n and their families and was maintained 24 hours a day for emergency use by large aircraft and daily use by small crafts in the area. Both of these projects were dissolved and were a great loss to the communty. With progress comes building build-ing and each year Hanks-ville's Hanks-ville's face gets lifted and each new wrinkle is becoming becom-ing a beauty mark. The $60, 009.00 elementary school was built nine years ago and a new LDS Chapel is nearing the completion time. There is a new State Dept. shed which houses equipment to maintain oiled roads, north south and west of Hanksville. Hanks-ville. During the past month motels and cafes have sprung up like dormant seeds waiting for spring. These along with service sta tions and trailer parks assist as-sist the ever increasing tourist travel to Lake Powell. Pow-ell. Many folks have heard of Hanksville before they even new it was located in Utah if they were readers of Zane Grey's material. Several novels were written about this country including "Wild fire" which retold the capture cap-ture of a wild mustang bv Charles Gibbons. Later "a novel came out by Charles Kelly, entitled "Outlaw Trail." Then Mrs. Pearl Baker wrote about "Wild Bunch At The Robber's Roost" which took several years of research re-search as Cassidy's Wild Bunch found this portion of the State quite safe and established es-tablished their hideout at Robber's Roose, which is northwest of Hanksville. Ear ly residents here knew" Butch Cassidy personally and among these is Mrs. Edna Ed-na Ekker Robinson who is a daughter of the late Charles Char-les Gibbons. Another is Charles Hanks of Green Riv-erwho Riv-erwho is 87 and the son of m . the founder of Hanksville, Ebeneazer Hanks. They are constantly. . interviewed by writers and historians who are obtaining western history. his-tory. Hanksville is a hub for mining activities after a pioneer beginning by J. C. Summer and Jack Butler who developed the Bromide mine in the Henry Mountain in 1889 and built a small stamp mill for the copper-gold copper-gold deposits. The Kimball-Turner Kimball-Turner mine was discovered shortly thereafter and ore was treated in a mill constructed con-structed at Crescent Creek. Then in the 50 Vernon Pick made his nine million dollars dol-lars strike 20 miles northwest north-west of here at Hidden Splendor. Spl-endor. Some of the first vanadium van-adium ore from this area was shipped to Madam Curie in France to aid her work with radium. As the electric lights burn, the telephone jingles, and the car insurance comes 1 due, and the water bill is paid we look back to the early settlers and realize how far we've really progressed. pro-gressed. The oiled. : roads cpmpared to the dirt two wheel ruts, the . artisian wells compared to the. waters wa-ters of the Fremont River settled for days before use, the daily mail service compared com-pared to horseback rides to Green River twice a week, the electricity i compared to butane lights or candles before be-fore that, we wonder what's next? We know what ever it may be it will be worthwhile worth-while for all the eighty persons per-sons residing here who enjoy en-joy their semi-isolation from the hustle and bustle of modern mod-ern city dewellers. |