Lewis brings prehistoric creatures to life in and around Hastings

By Jack McLoone

If you’ve ever been driving south along Goodwin Avenue in southwest Hastings, you may have noticed a house that boasts some very interesting artwork.

Prehistoric creatures of all shapes and sizes sit on the lawn. A t-rex, a saber tooth tiger and numerous large herbivores reside there. A wolf caught in a trap, made entirely of animal traps, sits in front of his garage next to a spinning spinner dolphin. There are even prehistoric-sized dragonfly’s fluttering around a tree.

After Dale Lewis retired from his career as an electrical technician and machinist, he began to explore three-dimensional art.

At first, he crafted traditional mosaic sculptures. A couple of them still sit on his front porch. Unfortunately, he found out the mosaics are not suited to deal with the elements of a Minnesota winter.

“I discovered that metal provides greater flexibility and working with scrap offers a wide variety of materials that often influence the design of my work,” Lewis said. “Not only can my pieces be permanently installed outdoors, but I love turning scrap into art. I look at things differently now, especially at junk yards, and see art everywhere.”

Dale showed me the variation of sculptures he has evolved to creating. All of his patio furniture are Dale Lewis originals. He informed me his favorite sculpture is a frog named Fernando. I was very surprised when he opened the lid to reveal a fully functioning charcoal grill.

“Pretty much every sculpture I’ve got comes with a story,” Dale said. A tree in his yard died, so he put an eagle in a nest. After that sold, he made another eagle, but this one had a pig in its’ talons and was named ‘When Pigs Fly’. After that sold, he knew he needed to make another work of art to look over his driveway. You can see it pictured above his t-rex.

“I’ve kind of embraced the flying pig thing where I’ve made like half a dozen flying pigs,” Lewis said.

About an hour of driving can take you to Minnetrista, just west of Minneapolis, where Dale has five sculptures featured in the Big Stone Mini Golf and Sculpture Garden.

His dragon named Bing was recently added to the Sioux Falls, South Dakota Sculpture Walk for the next two years.

At the sculpture walk in St. Joseph, Missouri, Dale has a walrus and a cannon shooting flowers. Salina, Kansas’ sculpture walk shows off his giraffe and coconut palm tree. His bull Old Tex is right in Hutchinson, Minnesota.

Fortunately, you don’t have to travel all that way to see Dale’s fine art. A map on page two shows you how to see some Dale Lewis originals locally.

Right by the intersection of Hwy. 42 and Lock Blvd., you can find a few of his pieces on some grass. Downtown, he made a tree that sits near the Hastings Riverwalk Trailhead. A short drive to Vermillion will be worth your time. One of the three stops in Vermillion are his sculptures of Gumby and Pokey, the iconic toys that were manufactured in the millions by Echo Plastics of Hastings.

“I really just stumbled into this whole thing,” Lewis told me. “I got started ten years ago and it started as a retirement hobby, but now it’s a full-time obsession. I kind of joke with people that this is what I want to do when I grow up, but it’s true!”