Geneva's gone to the 'hogs'

LINDON — Care for some irony with your morning bagel, accompanied by a dash of incongruity and a scent of incredulity?

Geneva Steel has gone totally green. And it's selling Harleys.

The evidence can be seen here just west of the I-15 freeway at the corner of 600 South and Geneva Road, where the Timpanogos Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealership stands as a testament that the more things change, the more they really change.

Across the street from what was once the Geneva Steel Mill, a massive structure built in 1941 that helped win World War II and belched out pollutants like so many billion unfiltered Camels before it went out of business in 2001, the motorcycle store is built largely out of parts salvaged from the old mill.

The roof, the lights, the trusses, the windows, the beams, the columns, the bricks, the mortar — they all used to be part of Geneva.

So did the wood in the desk in the office of general manager Rick Story.

So did Rick, for that matter.

He may look every bit the part of a Harley guy now — long shoulder-length graying hair, goatee, Harley rings on numerous fingers — but underneath it all beats the heart of a steel mill working man.

"I worked at Geneva in the 1970s. I was a union rep," Rick proudly states as he reclines behind the desk that was once some sort of hardwood siding at the steel mill.

He worked as a carpenter at Geneva in the mid-1970s when he was in his 20s and Geneva was in its heyday. As many as 5,000 people pulled shifts around the clock back then.

"The joke is I have to take a nap when I come to work," says Rick with a grin.

You have to be a recycled Geneva union man to fully appreciate that humor.

But as much as he appreciates paying homage to the old days and the history of the area, Rick Story quickly owns up that it wasn't his idea to raise Geneva from the ashes in the form of a motorcycle dealership. That credit goes to his business partner and the dealership's financier, Dave Tuomisto.

Tuomisto didn't personally work at Geneva, but his grandmother was a crane operator at the mill during the war — she was Rosie the Riveter on steroids — and his grandfather worked at the mill's power plant.