60th Black Hills Stock Show and Rodeo underway in Rapid City

Only three breeds of cattle were shown at the city's first stock show in 1959. Now, the major event welcomes thousands of visitors and millions of dollars during the middle of winter, an off-season for tourism in western South Dakota.

Gregg Butman has been helping his family showcase champion cattle from their Cottonwood Angus Farms near the South Dakota-Minnesota border since the mid-1960s. Butman tells the Rapid City Journal that the stock show brings rural and city residents together to increase awareness over how farms produce quality, safe beef.

Butman says the event preserves Western lifestyle.

This year's show began Jan. 17 and will continue through Feb. 4.