Hi-Country Snack Foods Pauses Lincoln Jerky Production, Leaving Workers Uncertain

When Yellowstone Naturals co-owner Wyatt Nielson met with Lewis and Clark County officials during the winter, a Lincoln community member named Dey came away believing Hi-Country Snack Foods was trending upward. On April 3, Yellowstone Naturals announced the opposite: a full halt to production at Hi-Country's plant on Montana Highway 200, laying off seven employees and leaving the Blackfoot Valley town of roughly 900 people to absorb another blow from its largest employer.

"Just from a community standpoint, jobs aren't easy to find around here," Dey told reporters. "Doesn't matter how many guys it is who were laid off, losing that is still going to hurt."

Nielson, co-owner of the Bozeman-based holding company that incorporated Hi-Country in December 2023, framed the decision carefully. "We've made the difficult decision to pause operations at Hi-Country and are actively working with all stakeholders to determine the best path forward for the business and the Lincoln community," he said in a statement. On whether the newly laid-off workers would receive their paychecks, Nielson told the Helena Independent Record: "And yes, they will be paid in full for what they are owed."

That assurance carries a complicated history in Lincoln. When Hi-Country's previous round of cuts hit in the summer of 2025, roughly 40 of the company's then-50-plus employees found out on July 11 via a group text message that they should not come to work the following week. Some never received what they were owed: former employees filed wage claims with the Montana Department of Labor and Industry. Worker Melissa Hollowell, who had been with the company through that downturn, said the signs had been obvious well before the texts arrived. "You know we all kind of felt it for a few months if not six months before this happened," she said.

Hi-Country has operated in the Blackfoot Valley since 1976, growing into a nationally recognized Montana beef jerky brand that at its height employed more than 40 people on Highway 200 a few miles east of Lincoln. When Travis Byerly purchased the company in 2019, the Montana Department of Commerce extended a $400,000 development loan to anchor employment in the region. Byerly later restructured the business as a subsidiary of Yellowstone Naturals alongside partners Chase Myers, Jeff Edwards, and Nielson. By the time of the April pause, the workforce that had once exceeded 50 had been reduced to the handful of employees caught in this latest shutdown.

The Lincoln Trading Post gift shop adjacent to the production facility had already been operating with limited inventory, with signs posted at the entrance warning customers that signature jerky products were scarce. With Helena roughly 60 miles to the southeast, Lincoln does not have a ready pool of comparable employers for displaced workers to turn to.

Yellowstone Naturals said only that it expects to share more information in the coming weeks, offering no specific timeline for a restart or restructuring plan. For the seven workers who lost their jobs on April 3, and for a town that has watched this company shed dozens of positions in less than a year, a vague promise of future updates is not an answer.