In the 21st Century the way America buys its meat has changed dramatically. There was a time when every town had its share of "Butcher Shops" (independent meat stores). These operations had their own small slaughter houses, which supplied the animals for their retail meat business. Federal regulations and intense competition from large packing plants have made these "Mom and Pop" operations increasingly rare.

For many years, from 1920 into the 1970s, the McCook Packing Plant was known far and wide as a trusted supplier of quality meat products from the "Beef State".

In 1920 Clarence P. (Skinny) Anton, the owner and operator of Anton's Grocery, at 102 W. 2nd St. McCook, began the business known as McCook Packing, on 40 acres of land just west of McCook. That early plant specialized in the killing of hogs and the curing of hams and bacon, but could also handle about 20 cattle per day. The product they produced was mainly sold through Anton's retail store and other McCook stores. Farmers from a 75-mile radius brought their livestock to the plant for slaughter.

Though Anton continued to operate his grocery store until 1967, when it was destroyed by a fire, the packing plant was sold to a group of local investors in 1927. Another disaster struck this group almost immediately. In 1928 the great McCook Tornado destroyed a good part of the packing plant, and knocked out the plant's refrigeration equipment, resulting in the loss of a great deal of meat. The group decided to throw in the towel, and soon after sold the plant to a couple of wholesale grocers, Earl Chitwood and Walter Haddock, who headed another group of local investors.

These owners did well. In the Depression '30s, they were in a position to handle the huge run on "drought cattle" (cattle, which the farmers were forced to sell because of lack of feed). By 1934 the Chitwood plant had slaughtered some 40,000 cattle.

In 1934 disaster struck again. Mr. Chitwood was killed in an automobile accident. A local veterinarian, Dr. M. Campbell, Mrs. Chitwood's brother, Dewey Thuman along with plant Supt., Frank Goeltl kept the plant going until 1945, when it was again sold, to a regional packer, Fred Glaser, who had plants in Omaha and Sioux City.

In 1948 Glaser abandoned the plant. It was growing up to weeds when it came under control of two New York brothers, Nat and Harold Romanoff, and their plant manager, Bob Lewis, in 1950. The Romanoffs were innovators and soon had the packing plant and its adjacent operation, the rendering plant operating at levels never before seen. (From 1937-1952 the rendering plant operated as an independent company, under the ownership of Charles, George, and Calvin Swingle. In the summer of '37 there was an onslaught of sleeping sickness, which decimated cattle herds for miles around. For weeks seven trucks were busy, day and night, hauling in carcasses from stricken herds, from a wide area of Northwest Kansas and Southwest Nebraska to the McCook Rendering Plant).

The Romanoffs specialized in "boned-beef," which proved to be very popular in Eastern markets. During the glory years of the Packing Plant, the Romanoffs had a fleet of refrigerated trucks hauling meat products to distributors "from New York to Denver, from Chattanooga to St. Paul." Buyers fanned out across the region attending cattle sales for the plant's raw product. And the Romanoffs were really "meat brokers."

Brother Harold was on the phone a good part of each day talking with packing plants and distributors across the country, arranging for McCook Packing trucks to deliver meat to one plant, and then pick up meat from another plant to deliver to yet another destination. A truck leaving McCook with a load of meat might be gone for two weeks or more, picking up and delivering across many states, the Romanoff's taking their cut on each transaction. McCook trucks rarely returned to McCook without a back haul.

The Rominoffs were masters at meshing the operations of the Packing Plant and the Rendering Plant. Very little of a carcass was wasted. In addition to their specialty, boned meat, cattle cheeks, tongues, livers, and kidneys were separated, packaged and shipped to the British Isles where they were sold as delicacies.

Various other parts of the animals, such as hoofs, skins, and innards dropped through the floor of the kill room and ended up at the rendering plant. Stomachs were made into dog food. Grease from the animal wastes was stored in huge vats, to be sold to national soap making factories. Hides, stripped at the Packing Plant, were sent to the Rendering Plant where they were packed in salt, and allowed to dry in piles of 1,200. Turkey feathers and innards were collected from a plant in Gibbon for processing. Bones, blood, and viscera from the animals were used to make a high-protein additive for poultry, cattle, and hog feed.

One sideline of the Packing Plant involved another McCook ent-repreneur, Veterinarian, Dr. Joe Magrath. Unborn calves were dropped through the floor of the Packing Plant to a "Man in the Cage" on the floor below -- a very sterile Rendering Plant operation, free of contamination. The Man in the Cage collected the calf's blood, which was sent to various laboratories for research purposes.

We came to McCook in 1957, and from that time till the Rendering Plant closed in 1981 there was almost continuous controversy about the Packing / Rendering Plant. On certain days, when the wind was from the west the odor from the plant's cookers was bad. One faction lobbied against the entire operation, claiming that the Plants stifled growth to the west. Another faction argued that what we smelled was the smell of money and McCook should be grateful to have an industry that employed so many people.

The Packing Plant could offer some positive figures. Theirs was an efficient operation. It took only about 10 minutes to kill, bleed, and skin an animal. The kill was continuous, 9½ hours a day, five days a week. Extensive cleaning followed each day's work. One hundred and 20 persons were on the payroll of the Packing Plant.

In the mid-'70s the McCook Packing Co. was hit with still another tragedy when a fire struck the facility. The plant was not destroyed, but damage to the electrical system and the refrigeration was extensive, and opened the doors for health inspectors, building inspectors, fire inspectors and all sorts of governmental agencies to come into the plant, demanding changes that amounted to rebuilding the entire plant. The Romanoffs decided against such drastic measures and the Packing Plant was closed.

Twenty-three workers, on two shifts operated the Rendering Plant. In the 1970s two modernizations were made that brought the plant into compliance with the anti-pollution laws. 1. A new lift station hooked the plant to the McCook City sewer lines, and 2. New cookers were added, designed to speed the disposition of dead animals and waste, which was supposed to reduce odors from the plant.

These measures undoubtedly helped, but the complaints continued. In 1980 the McCook Rendering Co. was sold to the Denver Recycling Co., after which rendering ceased at the McCook plant, which was thereafter only used as a collection point.

This effectively solved the problem of odors for McCook Pack/Rendering, but left McCook without an important industry.

Source: Gazette Centen-nial Edition 1882-1982, Mrs. Bob Lewis' recollections.