The Meeteetse Meat Co. has opened its doors to bring back what was once a staple in every small town in Wyoming: The old-school butcher.
Cutting meat is extremely hard work, but this new generation of butchers say that it's worth the long hours of physical work to save a Western tradition of local, fresh meat.
“It’s hard on a body, and we all get beat up on a slaughter day,” said owner Trent Longtin. “But what we are trying to do is get away from the big plants and the overseas meat.”
Trent’s wife Jenny said that once they decided they were going into the meat-cutting business it just made sense to build it in Meeteetse and the Big Horn Basin.
“We’re in the middle of ranches galore and the cattle industry,” Jenny said. “It’s been a good choice to put it here in the most fantastic little community that has supported us from the get-go.”
The Dream
The new business was the idea of Jenny’s nephew, Austin Wiggins.
Austin and his brother Tristin had grown up working in their family’s wild game processing company in Evanston, and Austin said that the experience is a favorite memory of childhood.
“I always told my wife if I could do anything, it would be cutting animals with my family again,” Austin said. “The opportunity arose, and here we are.”
The other two owners of the meat market are Austin’s grandparents, Dan and Syd Manderfeld, who were already living in the area.
“They’re the ones that we originally approached about the idea, and just kind of where it all fell,” Austin said. “With all the hunting and the towns nearby, Meeteetse seemed like a good central point for everybody to be able to get to us.”
Since neither Austin nor Tristin knew how to process domestic animals, they both went back to school, this time to Logan, Utah, to learn how to properly cut meat and navigate all the regulations.
“It was a learning curve on just how to break down a beef and sell it on the domestic side,” Tristin said. “The cuts are quite a bit different than the wild game we were used to.”
Trent said that there are also more eyes on the product since you are dealing with the state and federal rules.
“We had the basics and we learn more every day,” Trent said.
Building On The Old
The family had bought the old Barling building downtown Meeteetse which was a garage built in 1924.
Their hope was to renovate the garage into their butcher shop. However, between the poor shape the building was in and all the state requirements, including high ceilings, they were unable to make the old building work.
“We wanted to be a good part of the community and downtown and so our new building is all very historic,” Jenny said. “The wood on the outside of the building is actually repurposed from the Barling building.”
The family built the new building and processing plant themselves, hiring out only part of the work such as the electrical. They kept as much of the history of the Barling garage as possible to help preserve the integrity of downtown Meeteetse.
A Future Of Meat Cutting
The Meeteetse Meat Co. is part of a trend of localizing food sources in Wyoming and making it so that ranchers and others don’t have to ship their animals out of state.
Central Wyoming College President Brad Tyndal of Riverton said agro-tourism is a growing industry that the new butchers can tap into.
There is a shift in our country’s food systems and today’s consumer "wants a face behind their food,” he said.
The college has started a meat science program to train future butchers so that other Wyoming butchers can stay in the state and keep fresh food to their communities.
To capitalize on this food movement, the Meeteetse Meat Co. offers the slaughtering and butchering of domestic animals and the processing of wild game. It also has a full retail freezer for tourists and those who are craving fresh, local meat.
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
