Leaps of Faith
A love of automobiles led Troy Huntsman on a 12 year journey to build a successful car ealership in the county he calls home
James L. Davis
There is a painting hanging in Troy Huntsman’s new office that whispers of one of the motivating forces in his life: Leaps of faith. The painting, Arnold Friberg’s Prayer at Valley Forge, depicts President George Washington on bended knee at one of the decisive moments in American history.
The fact that the painting is so prominently displayed in the business owner’s new office was not an act of whimsy. Faith has guided the Emery County native on a 12 year journey from construction crew laborer to owner of Huntsman Motors. Faith in his religion, faith in his family, faith in his friends and faith that a little used car dealership in a sparsely populated county might one day grow to something more was something he found himself leaning on again and again.
“Daily,” Huntsman said when asked how often he turned to his faith for support. He paused and thought again. “Minutely.”
As the finishing touches are put on the new Huntsman Motors complex, complete with showroom, service bays and upstairs offices for his staff, faith in the community he calls home has led him to make an investment in a vision that he has carried with him for years, a vision of what he felt his customers deserved.
The two-story brick building that is the new home of Huntsman Motors is one you would expect to find in Salt Lake City but certainly not Huntington City.
“I’ve felt that the community needed a lift for a number of years. We wanted to bring this to the community we love. I felt very strongly about that, to give them a facility they deserve; a place that they feel comfortable about from the sale of the car right down to the oil change. I could have built a steel building for half the money, but we wanted to build something that would enhance the beauty of the community and provide a good work environment for our employees,” Huntsman said.
As the construction dust is swept away the journey that led the Ferron resident from construction worker to business owner was short, fast and at times a little bumpy.
Shortly after returning home from serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in South Dakota, Huntsman moved to Orem, where he and two of his brothers had bought a house with the intention of renovating it and selling it.
Working as a laborer for a construction company, Huntsman did not see a future in the construction industry.
“I hated it. I went to my boss one day and handed him my shovel and tools and said I can’t do this anymore,” Huntsman said.
The decision to quit his job came a week after he had asked his wife, Christine, to marry him. The two had met at a singles ward in Orem and newly engaged and unemployed, Huntsman decided that what he really wanted to do was sell cars.
“I always wanted to be around cars,” Huntsman said of his decision to take a job as a salesman for Washington Isuzu Kia in Orem in 1995.
Working in car sales was a comfortable fit and he quickly became the top salesman for the company and was promoted to finance manager. Two years later he was promoted to general sales manager.
His quick rise to the top at Washington Isuzu Kia was no surprise to his wife.
“It was incredible how eager he was to learn. He just wanted to learn everything. He dreamed about cars. He loves cars,” Christine Huntsman said.
That passion for all things cars included going to auctions to purchase cars, which was something he anxiously waited to have the opportunity to do.
“The first time he went to the auction he was like a little kid. He set his clothes out the night before and I laughed because he was so excited for his first auction. He was so passionate about it,” Christine said.
Two years after being promoted to general sales manager Huntsman took his first leap of faith in his own ability as a business owner. He opened his first Huntsman Motors lot on Geneva Road in Orem.
“We took a second mortgage out on our house and purchased our first three cars to start out with. We just kept rotating those cars and eventually our inventory grew to eight cars,” Huntsman said.
A funny thing happened as Huntsman rotated the inventory on his small car lot. He was surprised to discover how many of his customers were coming from the Emery County area.
“We had been selling a lot of cars to locals who knew me from down here and we wanted to get out of the city. In February of 2000 we came to visit my parents in Ferron and we drove around looking for places,” Huntsman said.
“We drove around in Price but nothing felt right,” Christine added. “We drove past this place and we looked at each other and said wow and turned around.”
The location, on the corner of SR-10 and SR-31 in Huntington, was home to the Canyon Rim Café, a long closed restaurant that had at one time been a service station. The two pulled onto the gravel parking lot and walked around and that faith led the Huntsman’s to take their next leap.
Troy pulled traffic counts from the Utah Department of Transportation to see how feasible it would be to move his car dealership to Huntington. Crunching the numbers they decided that the business could make it in Huntington.
But making the move to Huntington would impact not only the young Huntsman family, but also Troy’s brother-in-law, Matt Holt, who had been with them from the start.
“He went through all of the misery with us,” Christine said with a laugh.
Holt was eager to take on the challenge of setting up the dealership in Huntington and after a quick coat of paint and some repairs to the building, Huntsman parked his first cars in Huntington.
Living with his parents for a short time, Mike and Camille Huntsman of Ferron, the young entrepreneurs went to the task of making the dealership thrive.
“We had our ups and downs but with the support of the community we’ve been able to pull through the tough times,” Huntsman said. “We had four or five cars sitting on a bunch of gravel in front of an old restaurant. I look at those people who supported us when we wondered if we were going to make it as really dear friends,” Huntsman said.
In August of 2005, with his business thriving, Huntsman decided to take his next leap of faith.
“I was driving down Main Street after a wind storm had almost tore off the roof of the building again. The building was becoming an eyesore and we needed to expand and provide more room for automobiles,” he said.
The decision was made to tear down the old restaurant and replace it with a sales trailer until they could get a new building built. But from the moment the decision was made to tear down the building, he already had a vision of what would replace it.
“We started calling some contractors and they needed plans, so we started talking to architects. The architect put together a phenomenal look. I told him I wanted a Salt Lake or Orem look to the building,” Huntsman said.
Through the stress of having the building constructed, they continued to sell cars and count on the community they counted as friends and today, with the building set to officially open in January, the Huntsman’ can look back on their 12 year adventure and the leaps of faith they have made and give a collective sigh.
During the whirlwind years of their business development, Troy and Christine have not only juggled the many stresses of being business owners, they have somehow managed to juggle a rapidly growing family. Today, the business owners are also the parents of six children: Brittany, 11; Nicole, 9; Aubrey, 8; Michael, 5; Seth 2; and Mark, who passed away as an infant. The fact that Huntsman’s can juggle the responsibilities of business ownership and a young family is perhaps the biggest testament to their faith.
Sitting at his conference table with Christine beside him and their youngest, Seth, running happily here and there, Huntsman is reflective when asked about the picture of George Washington hanging on the wall behind him.
“If you think about anything great that has happened in life and there’s always been a man of faith behind it. I learned that from my father and mother,” he said.
That lesson learned has kept him making his leaps of faith.
Working together, Magnuson’s quietly
build successful businesses
Kathy Ockey
You can see and feel the bond between Clyde and Darlene Magnuson that has developed from working together for years towards a common goal. Together they have built and operate several businesses and Clyde said, “We have worked hard and had a lot of help from a lot of people.”
Clyde and Darlene bought their first cows when they were married in 1974. In 1975 they bought 22 acres of ground, 70 water shares and built their home. Their business started growing and they purchased a permit on Horn Mountain and also entered into an agreement to purchase 520 acres of ground and water shares from Clyde’s mother, Ina Lee Magnuson. Clyde mentioned several times how much his mother has helped and supported them throughout the years.
Clyde said his grandfather, Byron Johansen, was partners with Marvin Miller and together they started a meat-packing operation in Castle Dale. Romer Curtis bought Johansen’s share of the business and eventually bought the other half from Miller. Clyde said he expanded their business by purchasing the slaughterhouse from Romer. It fit in well with owning the cattle and then having a place to process them.
Along with raising their own cattle, Magnuson’s also started having an annual bull sale. It will be the 10th anniversary of the sale in 2008 and has had good response from buyers throughout a large area. It has grown significantly and gets bigger and better each year.
The Magnuson’s also owned the café on SR-29 which was most recently operated as Big Moe’s. Darlene said they were going to try to keep it open themselves but they “are just too busy to spend the amount of time it would take to operate it the way it should be. It takes too much time away from what we really want to do.” They hope someone will purchase it and make a successful business.
In 2000 Clyde started buying cattle for “Power Genetics.” This program includes packing plants, feed yards and producers throughout the western states. There are pictures of ranchers’ calves on the internet and Clyde coordinates the sales of the livestock for them. They also have live auctions that are relayed over the internet. Clyde then arranges to have the cattle shipped to feed lots in the Midwest and to have them delivered to the buyers. He said there are thousands of cows that are handled this way and Clyde is basically the “middle man.”
Technology is also becoming a big part of the cattle industry. The cattle have ear tags with radio frequency devices. This makes it possible to track the cattle from the time they leave the ranchers to the time they are ready for the consumers to purchase the product at the grocery store. This device also makes it possible for the rancher to receive information back on how each animal feeds at the feed lots, the sales and the kills.
The cattle business has continued to grow throughout the years. Clyde and Darlene said they haven’t built their businesses by themselves; they have had a lot of help from a lot of people. They mentioned their family and also the ranchers that supported their bull sales.
Clyde and Darlene could easily be placed in the famous portrait “American Gothic” to represent honest, god-fearing, hard-working Americans. They love what they do and they both said the part they like the most is herding cows on horseback, working with their sons and working as a family. They hope to pass on a legacy to their family that will continue. Clyde said he loves his job and if he had the ability to change anything it would be “to make it rain a little more often.”
“We have worked with a lot of good people. We haven’t done this by ourselves. This is a wonderful place to live and it takes everybody to make the world go ‘round.”
Forbidden Fruit
A love of cooking and a little imagination
swirl into a sweet success for local business owner
James L. Davis
The sweet creations and caramel apples imagined by Darcey Powell are so good they are almost sinful, which has everything to do with the name she chose for her business.
Choosing the name “Forbidden Fruit” for her specialty apple and candy business was a conscious decision for Powell. “The name came first and the business blossomed from there,” she said.
Her caramel apple business grew from an idea that first presented itself to her five years ago while in St. George when someone brought caramel apples from Las Vegas. Her brother commented on what a great idea the caramel apples were and Powell decided to combine her imagination and love of working in the kitchen into a business.
“I started experimenting with homemade caramel recipes and eventually found the perfect caramel for my apples,” Powell said.
Once she had settled on her caramel recipe she decided to introduce her caramel apples to the public, which just happened to be at the Emery County Fair.
“They were sad looking little critters but they tasted good and people bought them,” she said.
The “sad looking little critters” back then have no resemblance to the caramel apples of today, which seem to cross the line from food to a work of art. They are adorned with everything from M&Ms to Reese’s Pieces, from nuts to white chocolate and are part of a sweet line of treats that keep her customers coming back for more.
Powell said she has drawn inspiration for her creations from sweets she enjoys herself, which led her to make one of her signature treats, the Oh My Stars Bars, a combination of Rice Krispie Treats dipped in caramel and rolled in pecans, then drizzled with milk chocolate and white chocolate. “When I tasted this creation I said, ‘Oh My Stars, that’s so good,’ and that’s how the candy bar got its name!” she says.
Her husband, Gregg, came up with another popular treat because of his love of caramel and marshmallows. “Every time I start preparing the caramel for dipping apples, he puts a marshmallow on a fork and dips it into the warm caramel. He suggested putting marshmallows on a stick and coating them with caramel. I added chocolate, candy and nuts and called them Wand-a-fuls.”
The Cleveland business owner has watched her Forbidden Fruit blossom until it has grown to the point where she had to decide whether she would devote her full attention to her business or return to work as a school teacher. The mother of six waited until her children were grown before going to college. She taught third grade in Helper last year but decided this year she had to see if her business would grow if she gave it her full attention. It has. The Forbidden Fruit was recently picked up as a vendor for Associated Foods and her sweet creations are now for sale along the Wasatch front at Dan’s, Lin’s, Dick’s and Macey’s food stores. Locally her creations can be purchased at BK’s Stop ‘N’ Shop in Huntington.
As an Associated Foods vendor, Powell suddenly found herself in need of a larger place for production. She recently began renting the Cleveland Rock’s building in the Cleveland City Park to create her goodies and as her web site, caramelapplesandmore.com, is finished during the next few weeks, the workload that could be looming is somewhat stressful.
Her daughter, Kaymie, has taken a leave of absence from her studies at Paul Mitchell’s Beauty School to help her through the holidays and her sister, LaDene, helps out on her seven day on, seven day off rotation at the University of Utah Medical Center. She said she hopes to be able to hire some local help in the near future.
The possibility of her business growing faster than she ever dreamed is a real possibility and one that leaves her excited for the future.
“I wouldn’t mind if we were big. I love to learn new things. I’m going to let it evolve and see where it goes,” she said.
With six grown children, Powell said she is fortunate because they have chosen fields of study that offer her a wealth of knowledge for her growing business and with her husband preparing for retirement from the coal mines, she said the entire family is in a position to help build the business.
No matter how big her business may grow, Powell said she wants to keep it local and being an Emery County native has been a benefit to her as she has sought help from local acquaintances to make her vision become a reality.
“I know the talents of the people here, and I know who to go to for help and answers to my questions,” she said.
When trying to come up with a container for her ‘Apple of My Eye’ specialty apples, she looked no further than her next door neighbor, Owen Olsen, for help. He builds the wooden crates that she uses to display her creations as gifts.
She has always enjoyed creating delicious desserts and expressing her creativity in her own kitchen which has led from one sweet creation to another. “My kitchen is my favorite place. It’s seems natural that I’m creating something sweet and delicious that others will enjoy.” she said. |
