Living Outside a Post Card

“I walked out the back door to see my husband sitting on the porch bench asleep, with his boot in hand.  He was so tired that he had fallen asleep while putting his boots on.” – Nancy Long

Living Outside a Post Card

I could feel the slight vibration of my car’s steering wheel in my hand as I drove west on Utah Highway 199 though Rush Valley.  It was approaching dusk and the light was perfect!  I think it’s what a photographer would call the golden hour.  Farmsteads were on my left and right.  The Stansbury Mountains and Johnson Pass, also known as Fisher Pass, were straight ahead.  It looked just like a post card!

The pass I was about to enter is named for Carl Fisher, who grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana.  Carl quit school when he was twelve years old!  His first job, out of school, was in a grocery store.  That’s when he discovered he was an entrepreneur.  After a few short years in the grocery business, he opened a bicycle shop and then a car dealership.  In 1904, he began the Prest-O-Light company and by 1913 he sold Prest-O-Light for Nine Million Dollars.  While owning Prest-O-Light he imagined the idea of building an automobile testing ground and race track.  And, in Augusts of 1909, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway held its first race.  But, accidents and the deaths of six people, in this first race, caused the race to be cancelled.  The crushed stone and tar track pavement was determined to be too dangerous for racing.  And undaunted, Mr. Fisher paved the track with 3.2 million bricks, so the first five-hundred-mile race, called the International Sweepstakes, took place on the thirtieth of May, 1911, thereafter.  This annual event has been known as the Indianapolis 500 ever since.  But, it is his next venture, the building of the first transcontinental highway, the Lincoln Highway, I was thinking about on my drive through and over Fisher Pass.  While the beautiful drive allowed me to marvel, I knew that life here was much more than the simple post card offered to me now.

Not too many months prior to this drive I was sitting with Nancy Long in her cozy ranch house near the mouth of Fisher Pass.  She was telling me stories and of how she had been tirelessly working to preserve another history of the area, its ranching history.

“I walked out the back door to see my husband sitting on the porch bench asleep, with his boot in hand.  He was so tired that he had fallen asleep while putting his boots on!”  Nancy said to me as she described how hard they had worked on their ranch in their younger years.

Her words, remembered by me now, seemed to create a direct connection between me, Carl Fisher and the ranchers who had literally paved the road, I was currently enjoying, with their blood, sweat, tears and dreams.

“They all lived life outside of this post card!”  I said out loud to them and the canyon, as I started down the west side of the pass, toward Terra, though I was the only one who could hear the verbalized sentiment, as I drove forward.

I could feel the slight vibration of our history as I continued west down Utah Highway 199.  It was approaching dusk and the light was perfect!  I think it’s what a photographer would call golden light.  The Farmsteads were now behind me.  The Stansbury Mountains and Johnson Pass, also known as Fisher Pass, were about to be in my rearview mirror as well.  It had all looked just like a post card!

Yet, I knew that life here offered much more than the attractive photograph just presented to me.  This very land embodies priceless, individual hopes and dreams, toil and triumph, and even defeat.

You see, Carl Fisher was completely bankrupt by 1932.  Caused, as one of his greatest business ventures, the development of Miami Beach, was defeated by nature itself.  And, this tireless and resourceful businessman died seven years later.  I reverenced him, through memory, as I crested his namesake mountain pass, and the fading rays of the sun illuminated my way and mind, while delivering an important message.

Living life outside, beyond, a post card view allows a person to understand the true majesty of life through shared experience.  When you and I take the time to build deep relationships with others so we can share their individual stories, triumphs and challenges, our lives will never be bankrupt!