Our Story

Quality Meats, from Our Family to Yours.

Our family has been in the meat business for over twenty years, so we know good meat when we see it. But more than that, we’re a family-run business that is deeply embedded in the local community of Columbus, Montana. We know our meats and our community, and we’re proud of both.

Locally sourced, locally processed, nationally sold.

At Emmett’s Meats, our USDA premium meats line our shelves from top to bottom and are so delicious that we have customers that drive hours just to pick up our meats (good thing we now ship all over the contiguous US!). Order here.

Our success is three-fold.

1. Our Ranchers: We cultivate strong relationships with our ranching partners, choosing only the ones that we trust deeply to help us create our award-winning smoked meats, summer sausage, pork sausage, and beef jerky (which is often touted as the best beef jerky in Montana).

2. Our Method: Our meats come straight from the Stillwater Packing Co (link), where all the meat is processed naturally. No chemicals are used and no sprays are allowed. Instead, we dry age our meats for two weeks which gives them their robust flavor and mouthwatering appeal.

3. Our Values: We want the best for you, our customers, which means we go to great lengths to satisfy. We promise that when you call, you’ll get a human being instead of a machine. We promise that we’ll ship on time and when we say we will. And we promise that our meats will be overseen by us from the moment they arrive at our processing plant to the moment you walk out of the store with them. We’re small and proud of it.

Our Store

Emmett’s Meats (formerly Keyser Creek Smoked Meats) opened its doors in 2000 to serve a growing demand in the Columbus, Montana community for fresh, local meat. Six years earlier, our family had acquired Stillwater Packing Co, yet the demand for fresh, local meat from our neighbors in Columbus, Red Lodge, Billings, and beyond was more than we could keep up with there.

In order to better serve our community and our patrons, we opened a retail location, Keyser Creek Smoked Meats, to keep up with the demand. In 2014, we changed our name to Emmett’s Meats, our family’s name, and took off running.

Today, we carry a full line of Montana meats, including beef sticks, smoked sausage, beef sausage, pork sausage, fresh beef steaks, and much more (see all of it here).

As the retail store that initially only carried the meats that we processed at Stillwater Packing Company, we have since expanded into providing a retail home for the goods of local artisans and craftsmen. We like to support local businesses, just like our customers do. Stop in to see us and check them out.

Our Family

Emmett’s Meats is owned, operated, and run by Dewey (up there on the left), Kathie (to the right) and Jayson (smack in the middle) Emmett. On most days, Dewey oversees plant operations and dreams up our delicious creations (try our Cheddar Sausage!). Jayson runs the team at Stillwater Packing Co alongside Dewey, and is our number one taste tester. And if you’re near Columbus, Montana and trying to figure out where to buy local meat, stop by Emmett’s Meats and say hi to our friendly staff.