Town #39: HANKSVILLE est. 1882

Hanksville seems to be out in the middle of nowhere. It is at least an hour away from any other town. The town is just north of the Henry Mountains in southeast Utah and sits along the Fremont and Muddy rivers. It was originally named Graves Valley after Walter Graves who originally mapped the area. In the 1880s, several small towns were established in the area along the river, but Hanksville is the only one left functioning as a town. It is so isolated that they didn't have telephones until 1913, and before 1960, the only electricity came from individual generators fueled by butane and diesel fuel.


West of Hanksville, we found this billboard about the town Giles. Giles was another settlement started in the 1880s. The people of Giles struggled to make a farming community for over 20 years, they finally gave up around 1909. I have great- grandparents that met and fell in love here.

There isn't much left of Giles except some adobe brick foundations. This is what is left of the bell tower of the church/school house.

Town #38: WELLINGTON CITY est. 1878

Wellington is a small town six miles southwest of Price. It was settled in 1878 by 13 pioneer families, and is named named for Justus Wellington Seeley Jr who served in the Emery County Court.

We had to pass through Wellington to reach Nine Mile Canyon where we were able to see these wonderful petroglyphs. These are the petroglyphs that adorn, along the top, Utah's newest license plate. The canyon's name was misleading though, because we drove more than nine miles along that canyon. Or so it seemed to us.

Town #37: Helper est. 1881

I know that it is about time that I add some more towns to my list. Spring is trying to return and all those Utah towns are calling to us. I'm not sure what happened last fall, but I didn't finish posting about the rest of the towns that we saw. Last Labor Day weekend, we took a fun trip around Utah and stopped at many Utah towns. Our first stop was Helper, seven miles north of Price. This was a scary picture because we had to pull over to the side of the busy highway to take it.


A couple of days later, we stopped at Helper again on our way home and found a much better sign along the quiet town streets.


Helper sits just at the point the highway comes out of Price Canyon. It is a railroad town established by the Denver Rio Grande Western Railway. It is known as "The Hub of Carbon County". Its name comes from the helper engines that would help the trains make it up the steep Price Canyon. Because of the railroad, Helper has always had a diverse population. We like Helper because it has so many of the old original buildings on its main street still. Helper also has a great museum in one its old hotels based on the railroad and coal mining history in the area.


The Balanced Rock Cafe is another reason why we like Helper. They serve the best grilled ham and cheese sandwiches anywhere in Utah. They let you pick out both the type of cheese and bread that you want. Very tasty!

Town #36: LOA est. 1878

Not far from Lyman is the county seat of Loa. Loa was named after Mauna Loa, a volcano in Hawaii, by Franklin Young. Franklin Young served a mission in Hawaii and was impressed by the volcano there.

The town sign is on top of a hill northwest of the town. Here is what looks like from the sign.

Town #35: LYMAN est. 1895

A short distance from Bicknell is the town of Lyman. It is one more small Utah farming community. It was named after LDS apostle Francis Marion Lyman. As you can see, I look really excited to be here on the edge of town.

Sometimes, these little towns fool you. Just as you think you have found the only town sign, you find another bigger one. We almost missed this one, but John made a quick turn and stop. It is hard to skip a bigger sign. We had to dodge sprinklers to get this picture.

Town #35: BICKNELL est. 1875

The town of Bicknell lies just west of Torrey. It was originally called Thurber after an early settler. In 1916, Thomas Bicknell, a wealthy educator and historian from Providence, Rhode Island, offered a library of 1,000 books to any town that would name itself after him. The townspeople of Thurber took him up on his offer and changed their town's name to Bicknell. The people of Bicknell, however, only received 500 books because another Utah town also took up Thomas Bicknell's offer. The town of Grayson changed its name to Blanding, Bicknell's wife's maiden name, and they received the other half of the library. That must have seemed an easy way to start a library.

Town #34: TORREY est. 1880s

Torrey is the only town so far that I haven't been able to find an establishment date for. All the sources that I have been using just say that it happened sometime in the 1880s. That is all I got from the Torrey website too. It is named after a Colonel Torrey, who served with Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders during the Spanish American War. Torrey is one more small farming community that has expanded to include tourist accommodations. It sits about 10 miles west of Capital Reef National Park.

Capital Reef National Park is one of the lesser known national parks in Utah, but it has some really nice hikes. This is a picture of Hickman's Bridge.