Boot Hill Feeds: Fort Bridger feed store provides quality products across the West

Ernie and Mary Lynne Giorgis met at Scottsbluff Junior Community College, now Western Nebraska Community College, in Scottsbluff, Neb. close to 60 years ago.

Ernie grew up in Mountain View and was attending the community college on a football scholarship when he met Mary Lynne, a Nebraska native who was studying education.

In 1965, after graduating with their associate degrees in education, the couple decided to return to the Giorgis Ranch in Uinta County to help Ernie’s parents with the family store and on the ranch.

Ernie’s grandparents, who were Italian immigrants, moved to Uinta County after Ernie’s great uncle was killed in a coal mine explosion and established the Giorgis Ranch in 1922.

The next chapter

Over the next few years, the couple welcomed four children – Elizabeth, Linda, Joel and Amy – into their lives.

“Ernie and I supported all of the children’s school and extracurricular activities, including Girl Scouts, 4-H and FFA, along with many other projects and fair entries,” Mary Lynne states. “And, of course, school athletics where each child excelled in one or more.”

While the children were growing up, Mary Lynne served as a Girl Scout leader, a 4-H leader, a substitute teacher and a librarian at the Fort Bridger Elementary School in the Mountain View School District for nearly 30 years. 

Ernie was the Mountain View High School basketball and football assistant coach over the years and also served on the school board.

For many years, Ernie was the president of the Uinta County Fair Board and a longtime member of the Lions Club, serving on its board of directors. 

The couple’s biggest achievement came when they were blessed with 12 grandchildren, all of whom were raised within seven miles of the family ranch and participate in ranch life. 

Mary Lynne says, “In November, we are expecting our first great-grandson.”

About the time the family stepped into the show ring, Ernie decided to enter the livestock feed business, and Boot Hill Feeds was established.

The story continues

Ernie and Mary Lynne started Boot Hill Feeds in 1985 as distributors of Ranch-Way Feeds in Fort Collins, Colo.

“A few years later, Ernie was approached by Jim Nix to join in with other
Nutra-Lix liquid feed dealers,” Mary Lynne notes. “There are some crazy memories about having the huge fuel storage metal tanks delivered and cleaned out by Ron Pruitt. He got a little tipsy from being inside with all of the fuel fumes from using a hotsy cleaner.”

The couple has remained Nutra-Lix dealers for over 30 years, through ownership and representative changes, and continues to be dealers with Ranch-Way – now Ranch-Way/Hubbard Feeds – after the small family business was sold to Hubbard Feeds. 

Boot Hill Feeds was also a distributor for a small family business in Ogden, Utah known as Cache Commodities Feed, which was recently purchased by the Intermountain Farmers Association based in Salt Lake City, and they sell Weaver products. 

The family business has grown to be a popular feed supplier in southwest Wyoming over the years but has now concentrated more on mineral products, barrels, special orders and pet food. 

Mary Lynne is calling this semi-retirement.

Giorgis Show Calves

In addition to running the feed store and the family ranch, Giorgis Show Calves began when the Giorgis kids started 4-H and were raising and showing their own calves with hopes of being more competitive. 

“Our involvement in show cattle led to the Giorgis Show Calves venture with years of artificial insemination (AI) and embryo transfer,” Mary Lynne states. “By the time they got out of 4-H, we were raising good calves so we started selling them.” 

She notes the family has been utilizing AI for 30 years and didn’t want to quit when the kids aged out of showing.

“Producing quality show cattle resulted in each child winning a grand champion beef or breeding beef which was born and raised right at home,” Mary Lynne continues.

This tradition has been passed down to their grandchildren, who also received many awards and championships in the show ring. 

Over the years, Giorgis Show Calves secured the grand and reserve champion market beef at the Uinta County Fair in Evanston. In 2022, the family found itself at the end of two generations of showing beef at the fair.

Today, the family is still AI’ing Simmental, Angus and Salers show and commercial cattle, which can be purchased through private treaty or at the Utah State University Aggie Classic Club Calf Sale in Logan, Utah, held every November.

For more information on Giorgis Show Calves, visit @GiorgisShowCalves on Facebook.

Melissa Anderson is the editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.