Libby's Ron Adamson glad he stuck with his convictions

When Libby’s Ron Adamson quit working in the lumber mill to focus on creating art, many locals thought he was crazy.

"I left before it closed and people said I was crazy leaving a good job with benefits, but I wouldn't have met so many interesting people and had so many interesting experiences," he said in a recent interview with The Western News.

Adamson's lack of regret in altering his path in his career and life are obvious today. He's created wood carvings and sculptures of bronze and stone that grace the homes of people all over the world.

Adamson has shown and created his work all over the country and his efforts at making a living in art - not an easy task - led him to arguably his most famous creation and later a story right out of what he calls, “The Twilight Zone part of the story.”

His bronze statue, ‘Easy,’ has graced a corner on the famed Route 66 in Winslow, Arizona, since 1999.

As word of his prowess spread as a carver and sculptor, members of a local committee contacted Adamson to see if he would create a sculpture. 'Easy' was the result and it has graced the corner where “Standin’ on the Corner Park” was eventually built.

The Kaufman family, pioneers who helped settle the Winslow area, donated the property where the park is located.

'Easy,' portrays a man holding a guitar, its base propped on the performer's boot. It ended up becoming a symbol of the famous Eagles 1972 song, “Take it Easy.”

Of course, who could forget one of the most famous lines in the history of song, “Well, I’m a standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, such a fine sight to see; It’s a girl, my Lord, in a flat-bed Ford, slowin’ down to take a look at me.”

While that story is well known, Adamson has only recently revealed the “Twilight Zone” part.

After Ron’s mother died in August 2008, he found an old black and white photo in a box of hundreds. In the photo there are two men standing on Route 66.

“My grandfather and another man are standing next to a Route 66 highway sign,” Adamson said. “I don’t know who the other man was, but my grandfather is holding a guitar in the same way 'Easy' was."

Adamson explained how he believes his grandfather was photographed standing next to a Route 66 sign in Arizona.

"He was a Merchant Marine and he said he and a few friends were traveling across the country," Adamson said. "He told me they'd stop at each state line and have a beer before they continued on their way."

Adamson said he didn’t even know the photo, which he believes was taken in 1935 or later, existed until years after he built the sculpture. And when he first looked at it, he didn't realize its significance.

"After my Mom died, I was going through a box of photos. There were probably 300 to 400 photos in it," Adamson said. "It's fairly small, but the Route 66 sign piqued my interest, so I scanned it and enlarged it to get a better idea of it."

After getting a better look at the image, Adamson said he was absolutely shocked when he realized it was his grandfather, Ole Wilhelm Seelbach. He shared the photo with some cousins and they, too, were amazed at what they saw.

Seelbach was a Norwegian sailor. He married Ron's grandmother in Brooklyn, New York, but the Great Depression was underway and the family returned to Ole’s home land in Norway.

Adolph Hitler invaded Norway in 1940 and Adamson said the town where the family lived was bombed heavily during World War II.

The photo has had quite the life of its own, including surviving a war and two trips across the Atlantic Ocean as well as across the country.

Another element of the “Twilight Zone” aspect is the first time he heard “Take it Easy.”

“I was 16 and my grandfather Ole and I were traveling to Norway to see relatives. We were on our way to the airport and I turned on the radio and the new song, “Take it Easy” was playing,” he said. “What are the odds that’s the song playing?”

Adamson believes his story is just a strange coincidence.

“I’m just glad that photo survived all that time and all those travels,” he said.

Adamson spends time in Winslow, Arizona for the 'Standin on a Corner' festival in September and when he meets people from all over the world, many are surprised.

"The statue has brought people from all over the globe, Europe, Africa, Asia, South America," he said. "Sometimes I meet the travelers and they can't believe they are meeting the sculptor, so it's enjoyable to see the effect it has had on people for nearly a quarter century."

According to arizonajourney.org, the statue became a place for tributes to Eagles songwriter and performer, Glenn Frey, after his death in 2016.

Adamson's travels also resulted in friendships with two authors.

Friends Jolene Sladekova and Bo W. Daniels recently published the second of a trilogy titled “Secrets of Coyote Canyon Blue Wolfs on the Run.”

The duo thanked Adamson for help in their latest work of fiction. Adamson is also the subject of one of the chapters.

“We are now dancing with delight as he has so graciously allowed us to incorporate him into a real-live character beginning in this second novel of Coyote Canyon,” the authors wrote in the acknowledgements of those who helped them write and create.

Chapter 19 of “Blue Wolfs on the Run” is how one of the principals in the book, Jackson Blue Wolf, traveled to Libby to inform Adamson of the death of his parents in a tragic accident.

"It was a surprise," Adamson said. "Who expects that?"

Adamson said he was briefly mentioned in the duo's first book of the trilogy.

"I guess it's kinda cool," he said.