For the week of August 8 - 14, 2001

Valley pioneer recalls simpler, more direct days

Rollie Law, 95, hangs up his fishing hat

By TRAVIS PURSER
Express Staff Writer

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Rollie Law, 95, sits on his back porch surrounded by what’s left of the rods he’s used in 63 years of fishing. His 15-foot boat sits in the yard, the motor in the garage. Nearby is a collection of hand-tied flies, tent, camp stove and other odds and ends. In the house is a pump-action, 12-gauge Remington shotgun used for bird hunting.

Rollie Law, is selling his fishing gear, including his hand-tied flies, because at 95 he’s "too wobbly to wade in the river," he says.

Just last summer, Law still fished. Not long ago, he still hunted. But now, age has caught up with him and for the first time he’s "too wobbly to wade in the river," he says. Everything is for sale.

The buyers, who trickle in throughout the afternoon in response to his melancholy classified ad in the Mountain Express, get more than just a piece of sporting equipment—they get a story that’s rich in Sun Valley history.

Law’s an expert on the way things were in Sun Valley, and he knows a bit about where they are now and is not afraid to say where he thinks they’re going.

"What they call old-timers now is people who have lived here for 30 years," he says. He’s lived here for 63, trumping nearly everyone who gives the popular Sun Valley greeting that goes, "So how long have you lived here?"

Law is tall and a bit thinner than he was in his younger days. He has a careful, deliberate manner and dresses neatly. He’s also recovering from a recent pacemaker implant operation, and his method of standing up from a chair relies more on balance and slow, controlled momentum than on raw strength.

"There’s nobody I know anymore," he says. "My friends are up there in the cemetery."

Last year, Gertrude, his second wife of nearly three decades, died. "So, now I’m alone again," he says. He spends his days reading and watching television. And he still cooks and cleans for himself and drives a vehicle.

People who come to buy Law’s gear get more than just a piece of sporting equipment—they get a story that’s rich in Sun Valley history. Express photos by David Seelig.

When someone interested in buying his equipment arrives, Law launches into his story. He moved here in 1937 to work as a landscaper for the newly built Sun Valley Lodge. But when his boss died, he took over that job, designing much of the grounds that exist today.

It was a serendipitous way to find a career, but Law excelled at it for 34 years until his retirement in 1971. He improvised ways to build clay tennis courts in a region where no one had done so before. He invented a method of building an outdoor ice skating rink that nearby cities still use.

Things here were simpler and more direct in 1937. His landscaping crew, for example, collected trees from nearby forests to plant around the lodge. "At that time it was just go get whatever you want," he says.

He earned $150 a month, and soon bought a few acres south of Ketchum because it was cheap. He built a house from milled logs that cost 1.5 cents a foot and stones he collected nearby. "It’s different today," he says. "People can find men to do that kind of work."

Rivers then were "lousy with salmon," and hunting deer was a bore because "they were too easy to get." He has photographs of hundreds of them gathered along the Big Wood River near Ketchum.

As for fly fishing, "there’s not much to it," he says without a trace of irony. "You just have to learn the river. The fish are where the feed comes down in streams."

While Law reminisces about a simpler life defined by Mother Nature and without electricity or telephones, SUVs rush by on nearby Highway 75. People with cell phones speed to Internet-connected computers at an ever increasing variety of jobs in Ketchum and Hailey. Sometimes traffic jams back up near his home where once only a few cars passed each day.

How does he feel about this changing world?

"I don’t like it, but it was inevitable," he says.

He doesn’t blame anyone for it.

"The world’s population is increasing so fast and people need someplace to live."

Besides, he doesn’t mind having people around to sell his equipment to, and having a little company.

"Come back and visit," he says when a buyer leaves.

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.