Now, the hamlet's time might be up.
Hanksville, about 180 miles southeast of Salt Lake City and home to 250, along with the burgs of Caineville and Notom in Blue Valley, appear on their way to becoming modern-day ghost towns.
Since a flood earlier this month wiped out their century-old diversion dam, farmers have had no water to irrigate their crops and alfalfa hay to feed some 800 head of cattle wintering on the high mountain ranges.
So far, not one dime has been committed to repair the damage.
"If there's no water, there's no agriculture," said Paul Pace, director of the U.S. Farm Service Agency for Wayne County. "And that means there'll be no towns."
A town dying for lack of water has happened before in this isolated region on the route to Capitol Reef National Park.
Old-timers still talk of Giles, also located in the Blue Valley. When floodwaters destroyed a diversion dam early last century, farm families had to walk away. Tourists stopping for gasoline can buy pretty pictures of the abandoned, rock-hewn homesteads.
Giles died out because the homesteaders didn't have cash to repair the damage - the same problem farmers and ranchers face in this lower Fremont River drainage area. The estimated price tag for today's damage is $8.5 million, way too high for people whose numbers are a quarter that of the cattle they raise.
"The hard truth is we don't have $1 promised from anybody," said Pace. "Politicians have stood on the banks of the river, wrung their hands and said, 'It looks bad, but we can't help you.' ''
The problem, said Larry Lewis, spokesman for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, is that the amount of damage isn't enough to effect all of Wayne County, making the flood area ineligible for federal disaster relief funds.
"We don't have funds to help these farmers out," said Lewis. "We're hoping some federal agencies might because these areas have been heavily hit."
Indeed. Of the 929 acres of alfalfa that were planted, all have been wiped out, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. About 16,000 feet of fences also were destroyed, along with a culinary line in Caineville and a sewer line in Hanksville.
More to the point: The Oct. 6 floodwaters destroyed the entire diversion dam and 2,700 feet of canal, making it impossible to grow crops or feed cattle next spring without emergency aid.
For years, Hanksville resident Dennis Ekker has sent truckloads of hay to the Navajo reservation. Now he doesn't have enough alfalfa to feed his own horses.
And if there is no money to rebuild the diversion dam, "It's all over," he said. "I'm out of business."
Ekker, a member of the Wayne Board of Education, had modest hopes for the town before the flood, which washed over his pastures and crops, leaving a residue of betonite clay mud the consistency of greasy butter.
"The middle and high school kids are bused 140 miles every day to Bicknell," he said. "Before now, we were hoping to at least get a middle school here."
Like Ekker, Ronnie and Tracy Albreicht also know if they can't get irrigation water, they'll lose their ranch.
Ronnie returned to his home here from construction jobs in Las Vegas. In Utah, he worked on road construction crews to help pay health insurance costs for his family. It took him four years and several transfers to land a job near his ranch.
Ronnie Albreicht is the fifth generation in his family to raise alfalfa and run cattle. Near his home, a one-room cabin sits beneath a century-old elm tree that was hand-watered by his great-grandmother. Atop the doorway is a carved wooden plat with the family's name.
Without water, they can't sell their land to recoup their original investment because desert land is next to worthless, Ronnie said. The couple cannot plan beyond the next spring, when their hungry cattle will come back from the winter ranges. Most of their harvested hay is now water-logged, and without water they will be unable to plant a new crop.
"We were starting to break even," Ronnie said. "Now we will barely be able to make the December payment."
dawn@sltrib.com
