This Week in the West: J.R. Simplot

🤠This Week in the West
🎙️ Episode 29: J.R. Simplot

📢 Episode Summary:
This week on This Week in The West, we go to high desert of southern Idaho to remember one of the American West’s most influential—and unlikely—business pioneers: J.R. Simplot, the self-taught farm boy who became the “Potato King.” On the anniversary of his death, we trace Simplot’s incredible rise from a 14-year-old school dropout experimenting with potato storage to a titan of agribusiness whose innovations helped define both wartime rations and the fast food era.

The episode explores how Simplot’s early experiments with dehydrating and storing potatoes led to massive government contracts during World War II. But his most transformative contribution came in the 1950s, when his company developed a process to freeze precooked French fries. That innovation aligned perfectly with the rise of fast food, culminating in a historic deal with McDonald’s that forever changed how Americans eat—and launched Simplot’s business into the stratosphere.

Listeners also get a glimpse into the larger-than-life personality behind the empire. Simplot was more than a businessman; he was a true Westerner. He built the country’s largest cattle ranch, invested in technology, and maintained a plainspoken, boot-wearing presence well into his 90s. Despite becoming one of America’s wealthiest men, he never lost his frontier pragmatism or his deep roots in the land that raised him.

🔍 What You’ll Learn:

• How J.R. Simplot’s innovations shaped the frozen food and fast food industries
• The role of Western land and agricultural practices in building a business empire
• Why Simplot remains a towering figure in both Western history and American entrepreneurship

👥 Behind the Scenes
Host: Seth Spillman
Producer: Chase Spivey
Writer: Mike Koehler

🔗 Further research:

• The J.R. Simplot Company: https://www.simplot.com/
• J.R. Simplot obituary: https://www.reliableplant.com/Read/11994/jr-simplot,-founder-of-potato-empire,-dies-at-age-99
• A history of French fries: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/are-french-fries-truly-french

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