Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Hanksville, UT

Hanksville is a small town in Wayne County, Utah, at the junction of State Routes 24 and 95, and its population was 158 at the 2020 census, down from 219 in 2010.

The town was settled in 1882 and was known for a time as Graves Valley, the name of the surrounding area, before taking the name Hanksville in 1885 after Ebenezer Hanks, an early settler, and it was incorporated on January 6, 1999.

Hanksville sits in the Colorado Plateau's cold desert region, just south of the confluence of the Fremont River and Muddy Creek, which together form the Dirty Devil River flowing southeast to the Colorado River.

The Hanksville-Burpee Quarry is located nearby, and the Mars Desert Research Station is 7 miles northwest of town, while the Bureau of Land Management's Henry Mountains field station is located in Hanksville itself.

Hanksville was a supply post for Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch, who hid out at Robbers Roost in the desert southeast of town.

During the uranium mining frenzy after World War II, Hanksville became a supply center for prospectors and miners scouring the Colorado Plateau, and many abandoned mines can still be found in the surrounding deserts.

The Rural Electrification Administration brought electricity to Hanksville in 1960, and today agriculture, mining, and tourism drive the local economy, with visitors coming for Lake Powell, Capitol Reef National Park, the Henry Mountains, the San Rafael Swell, Goblin Valley State Park, and Factory Butte.

Hanksville covers about 1.7 square miles and sits at an elevation of about 4,295 feet.

Hanksville has a cold desert climate, averaging only about 6.16 inches of rainfall a year and a mean annual temperature of about 53.9 degrees Fahrenheit, with a record high of 114 degrees and a record low of minus 35 degrees.

The 2010 census counted 94 housing units in Hanksville.