Becker joins commissioner race

Sonja Becker has filed for a position as Hot Springs County Commissioner.

A fourth generation Hot Springs County native, Becker grew up farming with her father along the Owl Creek Mountains and is the third generation to run the Becker Family Stock Farm.

A 1983 graduate of Hot Springs County High School, Becker spread her wings, traveled abroad, lived in several different states, learned bookkeeping, spent four years active duty as a supply sergeant in the U.S. Army and obtained her Bachelor of Science degree.

When she returned home to the family farm her father, Keith, told her, “You can’t make a living farming on Owl Creek,” and that we would have to have off-farm income. Her mother, Sally, was a registered nurse at HSCMH for over 30 years.

Becker put her degree in Outdoor Recreation and Natural Resource Management to work for the Shoshone National Forest for three years, co-owned the Ritz Entertainment Center and found herself pulled back into the farming lifestyle she had grown up with.

The sale of the Ritz, the birth of her third child and the loss of her husband, Jon, set her on a new path.

“Armed with the knowledge that I couldn’t farm the same way as my parents had,” she said, “I grew to be a conscientious innovator and have been providing farm fresh foods to Hot Springs County residents full time ever since.”

Becker has been successful both as a small business owner in Thermopolis and a small farmer in Hot Springs County. She is a member of the Master Gardeners, is on the advisory committee for the Powell Research and Extension Center and was awarded the Hot Springs County Ag Citizen of the Year. She was elected to the Hot Springs Conservation District in 2017.