Signs like these motivate a new Idaho book

If these signs look familiar to you, you’ve had a brush with “Fearless Farris,” who built a chain of successful Stinker gas stations across the Gem State.

The Farris Lind story has now been compiled into a new book by Idaho author Rick Just.

Just said Lind had a natural gift for promotion and an ability to turn a bad situation into something positive.

The “Tourist” sign is posted just east of Idaho Falls. The “Petrified Watermelons” sign is planted on King’s Hill, right next to a pile of melon-sized boulders. The reverse of the signs directs motorists to the nearest Stinker Station.

According to Just, “they were called Stinker Stations because a major brand gasoline dealer had once called Lind “a real stinker” because of his low prices. It took Fearless Farris about a second to latch onto that nickname and make a skunk his company mascot and logo. “

Farris contracted polio and spent about 20 years of his life on an iron lung, although he continued to grow his business.

Just’s book is called “Fearless Farris Lind, the Man Behind the Skunk” and will go on sale at Idaho bookstores….and Idaho Stinker stations…in May.