TORRINGTON – While Johnny Cash would say, “I’ve been everywhere man,” Toby Lewis is more of an “I’ve done everything man.”
Stepping into Lewis’ office, it’s easy to see. Hanging on the walls and lining the shelves are belt buckles, medals, pictures, artwork, leather kids boots, beadwork designs and more. Each item has a story to tell about his life and adventures.
Lewis played softball in high school and got interested in baseball when he went into college.
That led him to work as a truck driver for a crane in Denver, Colo., where Lewis met his wife Carolyn through a lucky happenstance on a trip home from school.
A childhood friend of Lewis’ was the roommate of Carolyn during her time at Colorado Women’s College. They soon found themselves on a 26,000 head feedlot in Minitare, Neb., where Lewis began working as the bookkeeper until the company was bought out, and Lewis oversaw the feeding operation for the cattle.
Life on the feedlot didn’t allow much time for family and when a job opportunity presented itself in Havre, Mont. for the next three years with Norman’s Ranchwear as a manager, they took it—along with about five trips with the family and the horse trailer to get there.
Lewis described his wife as a “city girl” when they met but she has been on every adventure no matter the reason.
A particularly cold winter their first year in Havre resulted in a story to tell through time. Lewis recalled the winter with a smile telling of “Cedar,” a calf roping horse he purchased from Texas, spending two weeks living in a trailer house basement on the property they purchased to weather the snow.
“Naturally, the first thing that I built was an arena so I could rope there,” Lewis said. “It was in November, early November. There was a storm 42 degrees below zero, snowing, 70-mile-an hour wind gusts. And, it was terrible. Well, in September I’d bought a new calf horse out of Texas and he was that slick. He had no hair. And I thought oh my gosh, because I’d taken a loan out at the bank on my new calf horse, he’s gonna freeze to death.
I went out there and in all honesty, I had two blankets on him and his feet were coming off the ground he was shaking so much. And this trailer house, to get into it one-way was a slope and a door down there. ‘I’m gonna put him in the basement, Carolyn.”
And that’s just one of the many stories of adventures the Lewis’ have to tell.
The Lewis’ spent that winter with a set of clothes for filling the heating oil tank the delivery truck was unable to get to. They made it through the ordeal with a system of Carolyn holding the funnel while Toby poured the oil. Lewis said they would just be covered in it by the time they were done, but they made it through.
After working with different western companies, Lewis settled in with Potts Longhorn Leather and American Hat Company as a traveling sales representative in 1966.
As a man that made and lost a fortune after walking away from Tony Lama Boot manufacturing to opening a small chain of Western stores throughout Wyoming called The Hanging Tree, the Lewis’ always found a way to make it through together.
Following a meeting with their prior partner, Lewis remembers walking out with his wife and their two daughters having to start over with nothing. That is when they decided to come back to Torrington to stay with their two daughters Christie and Cherrie.
During Lewis’ time working on the road, he found himself as the interim Eastern Wyoming College’s rodeo coach working with kids that he had known since his girls participated in the National Little Britches Rodeo Association.
“Billy just kind of jokingly said, ‘why don’t you coach, Toby?’ And the thing about it, all of these kids I knew from the time they were like this, and I said, ‘well, I’ll do it,’” Lewis said.
During the year Lewis was able to coach 65 kids and proposed a rodeo degree to the college for kids that just wanted to mark their profession down as ‘cowboy’ including classes that would help them along their journey.
Throughout the adventures of Lewis’ life he served with Western and English Sales Association for over 25 years and WESTrust, a company that was put together through collaboration to offer assistance to people in the Western community, the 2 Shot Goose Hunt committee for 19 years and worked with the Goshen County Chamber of Commerce among other boards in Torrington.
The Lewis’ asked for donations from different manufacturers they came to know over the years and organized the artwork for the 2 Shot during their years with the organization.
“We bought from probably every artist we had,” Lewis said.
In his 50’s, he attained a record time in the 1988 Wyoming Senior Olympics’ 25-mile bicycle race. Lewis said he still holds the record. Lewis also held the title of President of the Olympics in the early 90’s.
When he took up bicycling at 48 years old it was simply a way for him to stay in shape and get some physical conditioning. Finding that bicycling was something that he was passionate about, he traveled for about five years to races on the weekends in Nebraska, Montana, South Dakota and Kansas.
Because of work, Lewis stopped being able to go to every weekend race, but still tries to make as many as he can.
Lewis recalls an early race his first year of cycling that took place at a festival in Nebraska in October 1986 as a cold one. He said for this particular race he was in his cyclist attire paired with long johns, a western coat and earmuffs.
A dear friend of Lewis’ saw his attire and refused to be seen with him and Lewis tells this story with a smile.
“He didn’t want to be seen with me – he never said that, but I could tell it,” Lewis said.
That “cold race” over the Scottsbluff Monument resulted in the bicycling cowboy riding away with a win.
Lewis continued competitive bicycling seven years ago after some time away. Lewis said he had a pretty rough year in 2019 when it came to races and plans. It was a year of blown tires, missed opportunities and physical problems, but it hasn’t kept him down.
Lewis said he has around 150 medals that he has won through cycling.
Lewis said when he is asked why he does the things he does it’s because he can. He says that he could be relaxing in his recliner but that he won’t do that when he could be spending his life doing other things that he loves.
Lewis recalls a bike race when he walked up to congratulate the 55-year-old contestant on his win, and the other contestant said that he hopes he can do what Lewis is doing when he reaches that age.
While he doesn’t seek praise for doing what he can, he said it still feels good. He is happy to know that he is giving someone something to strive for.
During his time racing Lewis has dealt with Shingles, back operations, two knee replacements and a hernia surgery with many weeks of recovery time, but with his wife by his side, Lewis is going to continue giving it all he’s got to live every day to the fullest doing what he loves.
“It’s been a fun life,” Lewis said.
