Home Virginia Martinsville, VA: NASCAR & Beef Jerky

Martinsville, VA: NASCAR & Beef Jerky

Tucked away in a small town in Southern Virginia, far, far away from the Interstate, lies a facility where some of the top selling beef jerky in the United States is made.

Sash and I made a visit to Martinsville, VA specifically to visit Monogram Snacks, since over the past year our Internet publishing business has managed to build a business relationship with them on one of our other websites. It was actually a few weeks ago that we visited their corporate headquarters in Memphis, TN and got to meet their management team. When they invited us for a tour of their manufacturing facility in Martinsville, we couldn't resist.

I didn't know what to expect when visiting Martinsville. I knew it was home to one of the oldest NASCAR tracks in the country, but not much else. The folks at Monogram said the city of 13,000 people has an unemployment rate of 15.0%. And it's rather evident when cruising through its historic-looking downtown, with nearly every building vacant. There seemed to be more ghosts wandering the sidewalks than living people.

But now five years after the economic Crash of 2008, Monogram Snacks is enjoying growth as it continues to bring on more accounts, increasing its productivity, and creating more jobs for the city of Martinsville.

Wild Bill's Beef Jerky, the company's flagship brand, originally started in 1955 in Lancaster County, PA in Balwell's Butcher Shop. Over the years, popularity of this dried beefy chew increased and people came from far and wide to get some of the famous "jerky in a jar".

Today, it's become the preferred jerky throughout the Appalachian mountains and foothill range, just like other local favorites including Duke's Mayonnaise, Bojangles Fried Chicken, and Louisiana Hot Sauce.

"Wild Bill's" is still made the same way today as it was back then", said Curtis Gosser, Food Technologist at Monogram, as he gave us a tour of their plant. "It's still placed on hanging rods by hand and then dehydrated in a smoker."

"This is probably the most costly way to make jerky on a large scale", Mark Olivito chimed in. Mark is the company's Chief Marketing Officer. "But the only reason why we do it this way is because people still want Wild Bill's to taste and chew the way it's always been."

One thing I was rather impressed with when touring through Monogram's facility is dedication to cleanliness. Sash and I had to wear their uniforms, hairnets, and shoe covers, and then wash hands thoroughly before entering. Even when we passed from the manufacturing side to the packaging side, we had to take off the old layers of protection and put on new ones.

Monogram Snacks makes several other brands of meat snacks you might be familiar with. Trails Best, Circle B, King Cotton, Bull's Beef Sticks, Hannah's Sausages, Johnsonville, Realtree, Bass Pro Shops, among others. They also private label jerky, meat sticks and sausages for a hundred other popular brands, which I promised not to disclose. Those companies hire Monogram Snacks to make the foods for them, but put their own label on it. There's a good chance that if you buy a meat snack at a retail store, it was made here in Martinsville.

I also wanted to snap some photos of the inside of Monogram Snacks, but was told it was against their policy, so as to protect their trade secrets. But suffice it to say, that the manufacturing of beef jerky and meat sticks is a pretty simple process; it just looks massive and complex when you have to produce tons of it each day.

In addition to visiting Monogram Snacks, Sash and I spent some time in downtown Martinsville. We were looking for some kind of coffee shop with free Wi-Fi, but even free Wi-Fi is hard to come by in a town so economically depressed.

However, Mtn Jax Restaurant and Pub seemed to answer all our needs. In addition to free Internet access, and a downtown location, they offered some local brews on tap and pretty good eats. They even have live entertainment at night and outdoor patio seating so that you can watch the ghosts float by.

We even met a couple of riders who happened to be there. Both had Australian accents and both were riding Yamaha two-bangers. We hung out with them for awhile and told each other stories of great riding across the USA. It's fun to chat with fellow riders who appreciate great roads and hanging out at cool joints.

Even the super cheap, Super 8 motel we stayed at was rather empty. It felt like we were the only ones there, at least based on the lack of noise and lack cars in the parking lot. I told Sash I was going to run naked down the hallway, but decided against it figuring even this place has video cameras rigged up.