No Man's Land Beef Jerky was born out of necessity. I was tired of eating bad beef jerky. One day after a pretty good rain, a couple of farming buddies and I headed to Guymon, Ok, for a day of golf. After a full day, we stopped by a quick stop to grab some snacks for the trip home. Being an avid jerky fan, I grabbed three of what I thought were the best of numerous types of jerky that was on display. After trying each of them, I ended up throwing them out the window and remarking to my friends that I could make better jerky than that.

The next day I gathered up my dehydrator that I had purchased off of a television infomercial and headed to my dad's small grocery store in the town of Keyes Ok. I got a roast out of my dad's meat case, sliced it and marinated it in what I considered to be a recipe that would make the jerky have a good flavor. It took me three tries to finally get the desired flavor that is now our own secret blend.

To this day there are only three people who know the recipe, my sister Belinda, my long time friend and accomplice Gertrude Williams, and myself. Gertrude was even bribed by a tour guide in Branson, Missouri to divulge our secret, but she didn't give in to the pressure.

I let several of my friends sample my new jerky and it was a hit. This is when I decided to introduce it to the public. I placed a jar of my jerky on the check out counter in my dad's grocery store. Before the end of the day, the first batch was completely sold out! I knew then that I was on to something.

This led me to purchase better dehydrators that would speed up the process of making jerky by cutting the drying time in half. I then contacted several businesses in three states and asked them if they would carry my jerky. With the help of my sister Belinda, who is also my motivator, we were able to distribute our jerky in over 20 businesses across the area. (To date we are currently in over 130 stores, and still growing.)

After the response we received to our jerky from these resellers, we knew we were really on to something. We started looking for a place to build a beef jerky factory. Our search led us to Boise City, Oklahoma, where we found an abandoned convenience store some fifteen miles from Keyes. My dad, Marv Smith, being one who can salvage anything, looked the building over and thought it would be a great place.

With the help of my family: my brother Brad, his wife Kathy, their two boys Brandon and Justin, my sister Belinda and her two daughters Brenae and Baley, my mother Dee, and my father (and chief contractor) Marv, I was able to make my dream come true. With their help, we set out to construct the beef jerky factory and deli I had designed on butcher paper at my parents' kitchen table. It was in this design that I incorporated the deli to compensate for the extra time we would have while the jerky was dehydrating. (To date, we have remodeled three times, and have had to eliminate the deli.)

Dad had been right about the building. It turned out perfect for our new business adventure. Little did we know there was one small problem. The six by eight foot dehydrator we built turned out to be too small. Within two years of opening our business, we were building on to the jerky factory. This enabled us to meet the increasing production demands of our ever-popular beef jerky.

In its short life, our jerky has reached all 50 states and several countries by word of mouth. We have even shipped it to the USS Nimitz during the Persian Gulf War, and to our troops in Kandahar during our recent WAR ON TERRORISM.

Our new factory has the capability of producing up to 1200 pounds of actual beef jerky a day compared to the 400 pounds a week we were making originally. This is why we have finally decided to distribute our product in the world's largest market place, the Internet. We are excited to finally be able to offer you our great product online. We hope you enjoy eating our jerky as much as we have enjoyed making it for you.