The Hanksville-Burpee Quarry is located nearby, and the Mars Desert Research Station is 7 miles (11 km) northwest of town.

The Bureau of Land Management's Henry Mountains field station is located in Hanksville.

Tourism is particularly important with people coming for recreation at Lake Powell, Capitol Reef National Park, the Henry Mountains, the San Rafael Swell, Goblin Valley State Park, Factory Butte, and the solitude of the surrounding deserts and slot canyons.

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

During the uranium mining frenzy following World War II, Hanksville became a supply center for the prospectors and miners scouring the deserts of the Colorado Plateau.