It was first described in 1888 for an occurrence in Searles Lake, California, and named for American geologist Henry Garber Hanks.

At its deposits in San Bernardino County, California hanksite is commonly found beneath the surface embedded in mud or in drill cores (Palache et al., 1960).

It is associated with halite, borax, trona, and aphthitalite at the Searles Lake locality.

[citation needed] Hanksite can be colorless, white, gray, green, or yellow, and is transparent or translucent.

Typical growth habits are hexagonal prisms or tabular with pyramidal terminations.