Remember When

Our meat processing plants work long and hard hours during the big game season keeping all of their customers happy. Thinking of meat processing brings the Old Austin’s Packing Plant to mind. For those of you that do not remember, this sat on the west bank of the Milk River next to the river bridge on the Tampico Hiway, and was owned and operated, of course, by Mr. Alvin Austin. They, Mr. Austin and crew, would process your cattle, hogs & sheep with precision! Mr Austin would also buy animals from local people. (Probably no feedlots at that time).

Just a little on the personal side, my husband had two pigs that were raised on barley and skim milk. At the time top butcher hogs weighed from 190-210 pounds. When taken to Mr. Austin for him to buy they weighed about 280-290. Mr. Austin, being the great guy he was, gave to my young inexperienced husband top market price. Now, when I think of the packing plant, I think of the Cracklings that came from there. These were pieces of rind, seasoned and cooked over a high heat. Many individuals cooked their own also. Today you can by Pork Cracklins in a nice snack sack. We used to buy them for dog food, etc and of course stored them in our basement way. My kids and the neighbor kids loved to throw them at each other. What a greasy mess that was! However I am sure that it offered them more enjoyment than eating them. I might mention that the waste water, etc. flowed into the Milk River. This would be highly frowned on today, but back then the Carp and Catfish in the river lived the “good life”

There is still a concrete block building that sits on the site and makes this memory come to mind many times when traveling to town.