Rodeo

South Dakota named rodeo its official state sport in 2003, following Texas, which made the designation in 1997. Governor Mike Rounds signed the bill into law that February, giving formal status to a sport already tied to the state's ranch towns. Wyoming adopted rodeo as its own state sport that same year.

A gate swings open and a bareback rider bursts into the arena on a bucking horse, one hand locked into a rigging strap while the animal twists beneath them. Saddle bronc and bull riding follow the same eight-second clock, judged on control rather than simply staying mounted. Timed events change the pace: barrel racers cut tight turns around three barrels at a gallop, while ropers and steer wrestlers race a stopwatch instead of an animal's temper.

South Dakota runs rodeos from March through October, and the Black Hills hold the state's deepest tradition. The Black Hills Roundup in Belle Fourche has run nearly every year since 1918, making it one of the oldest continuously held outdoor rodeos in the country. Deadwood's Days of '76 draws top Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association competitors each summer and earned a place in the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2011.

Rodeo grew out of the daily work on South Dakota's cattle ranches, where cowboys broke horses and roped stock across the state's West River range. Ranch hands began testing those skills against each other at local roundups, and the informal contests hardened into scheduled competitions by the early 1900s. South Dakota chose rodeo because the sport stayed tied to its working ranches rather than arriving as a borrowed pastime.

Belle Fourche showed how deep that tradition ran. Townspeople organized the first Black Hills Roundup in 1918 to raise money for the Red Cross during World War I, drawing 15,000 people to a town of under 1,500 residents. The event kept running every summer after that, and President Calvin Coolidge attended in 1927 while vacationing in the Black Hills.

Deadwood's Days of '76 adds a second century-old rodeo tradition to the state, having won the Badlands Circuit Rodeo of the Year award 16 times since 1998. Together the two events keep South Dakota's rodeo culture running from the Fourth of July through the end of summer, evidence lawmakers pointed to when the sport already ran deeper here than in most of the country.

State Representative Larry Rhoden introduced the bill that made rodeo South Dakota's official sport, and Governor Mike Rounds signed it into law on February 27, 2003, just weeks into that year's legislative session. Rhoden, a rancher from the state's West River country, later served as lieutenant governor and became South Dakota's governor in 2025. As governor, he has pointed back to the bill, saying he loved rodeo enough in 2003 to be its prime sponsor.