James Newell Robbins was born on September 18, 1906 at Boxelder, Wyoming. He spent most of his life in northern Albany County where his Dad had homesteaded. He lived with his parents and the Newells and then went to Casper to grade school.
Jim lived in Nevada for a few years in the early 1930s working on ranches and rounding up wild horses.
In 1934 Jim rode for the CBC rounding up their horses on the Laramie Plains. The horses were gathered and moved to Laramie where they were put on the train and sold.
He was nominated and had his entrance paid to represent Albany County to ride at Cheyenne Frontier Days. However he didn’t get the letter until the rodeo was over as he was out on the round up.
In 1935 Jim married Yvonne Lawton. Together they raised two sons Dale and Dwight. The first year they were married they put the hay up on the Two Rivers Ranch northwest of Laramie. In 1936 Jim homesteaded in the Marshall area. His homestead is part of the Robbins Ranch which is still owned and operated by his son Dale and family. In 1944 Jim and Yvonne bought the Shuckey Bell Ranch and in 1945 they bought the Bean Ranch. In 1956 they bought the Waring Ranch which was where the Marshall Post Office and store was located. Jim worked hard to enlarge the meadows on the ranch. He trapped, hunted coyotes and bobcats and sheared sheep to help pay for the ranches. He also guided hunters to help with the payments.
After the blizzard of 1949 he said he would not go through another winter without a dozer so that fall he purchased a D4 Cat which was the first piece of power equipment that he owned. Jim put together an attractive set of Hereford cattle to run on his expanding ranch. He raised both saddle and Draft horses. Jim broke many good riding and work horses. If he had a horse he couldn’t ride he sold it to the stock contractors. They knew if Jimmie Robbins couldn’t ride it that it was a good bucking horse. Jim used the work horses to harvest hay until the mid 1950s. He continued to use the work horses to feed with well into the 1980s.
In 1947 Jim won the saddle at the Frank Robbins Rodeo in Glenrock. This had been one of his goals.
Jim loved to hunt and fish and made a little moonshine.