In a small shop at the back of a Mexican restaurant in Mancos, Perry Lewis, 76, ran a ruler over a large piece of leather.
The leather was heavy, thick and rigid, but when Perry is finished, the unwieldy piece of rough leather will be a saddle.
Lewis and his cousin Eldon Simmons, recently reopened their small shop, River Traders Saddlery. The two can often be found toiling away and making leather into all sorts of things.
“See this saddle,” Simmons, 67, said. “It’s a rough-side out saddle.”
He also pointed to a gun holster, bridles, chaps and even a cell phone case.
“We make pretty much anything out of leather, except boots and shoes – that takes different equipment,” Simmons said.
The small shop reopened last year, Lewis used to have a saddle shop in downtown Mancos in the 1980s. So they gave their new joint venture the same name.
Lewis also runs Rimrock Outfitters. Simmons ranches and farms and is a competitive chuck wagon cooker.
“We aren’t here much in the summer,” Simmons said.
When asked about hours, Lewis replied, “When we are here, we are here, when we ain’t we ain’t.”
The duo take pride in their work and the fact that the trade has been around for hundreds of years.
In fact, Lewis sews leather on a sewing machine made in 1898.
“I traded an old Cadillac for that,” Lewis said of the machine.
There is also history in the saddles.
Waiting to be repaired in the back of the shop were two saddles with a lot of history.
“This saddle belonged to one of the original settlers in Mancos,” Simmons said. “This was from the Menefee family. This saddle belonged to the first white baby born in Mancos.”
The saddle belonged to George Menefee, said to be the first child born to settlers in Mancos.
“They are still good and usable saddles,” Simmons said. “They just need a little work.”
Lewis has made about 40 saddles in his life, and Simmons said he has been working leather since he was a teenager.
Simmons proudly pointed to his wall full of tools.
“A lot of these tools were bought in antique stores,” he said.
And many of those tools were sharp.
“You learn to keep your hands on the correct sides of the blades real fast,” he said.
Simmons is retired from the Mancos Rural Water Co.
Both Simmons and Lewis said they do repairs and custom saddle orders. Their shop is located behind Chivalo’s Mexican Restaurant, next to Cox Conoco.
Their slogan is, “Cowboy tack and repair by cowboys.”
“We stay pretty busy,” Simmons said.
