Ron Jeffries has run the Central States Fair since 1997, and he is quick to point out that the nine days everyone knows about are not where most of the work gets done.
The 2026 Central States Fair opens Aug. 21 and runs through Aug. 29 in Rapid City. Beyond that stretch and the Black Hills Stock Show in January, Jeffries said the fairgrounds hosted 786 other events last year, everything from horse shows and indoor motorcycle racing to weddings, proms, auctions and funerals.
“We’ll have three and four events every weekend, and we’ll have different types of things,” Jeffries said on the Rapid City Business Journal podcast. “And it’s not all just cowboy stuff.”
That year-round calendar is the part of the operation Jeffries argues most residents never see. The fair and the stock show together account for roughly “two months worth of activities for our team,” he said. The other 10 months are what turn a seasonal attraction into a working piece of the Rapid City economy.
Jeffries put the fairgrounds’ annual economic impact at close to $70 million, citing a study conducted a couple of years ago. He said newer tools, including geofencing data, have made those estimates sharper than they used to be.
Some of that impact is straightforward: multi-day events fill hotel rooms in a city where lodging taxes are a significant revenue driver. But Jeffries said the fairgrounds’ visitors behave differently from the typical Black Hills tourist.
“A lot of these ranch-type events, when they come to town, they’re also doing all their shopping,” he said, from school clothes and groceries to vehicle service and fence posts. A family driving in from out of state for Mount Rushmore does not load a van with lumber. A ranch family in for a weekend show often does.
The same goes for smaller towns using the grounds as a venue. Jeffries described a wedding party coming in from Kadoka with 150 guests, more people than some communities can house. They rent a building at the fairgrounds and bring the whole group to their regional shopping hub.
Even the events nobody hears about carry weight. A modest horse show with 10 or 20 horses still books hotel rooms for a weekend.
Jeffries also pointed to a piece of the math he said gets missed: where the vendor money ends up. Many Black Hills Stock Show vendors are regional, and their sales circulate back through South Dakota rather than leaving with them.
“If there’s somebody from Denver, their money is going to go with them when they go back to Denver,” he said. Vendors from Newell, Union Center and elsewhere in the region keep those dollars in the trade area.
The operation Jeffries inherited looked nothing like this one. He joined the fair board in March 1997 and took the general manager job that December, and he said he did not fully understand the finances until he was in the chair.
“I think we were $350,000 in debt, and we hadn’t made $5,000 in a number of years,” he said. He recalled his wife calling from a local store, unable to charge cookies to the fair’s account for his own welcome gathering because the organization owed too much money.
Asked why he took a job in that condition, Jeffries gave a short answer: “I thought I could improve it.”
He credits much of the turnaround to a committee structure built around expertise rather than titles. The fair’s horse committee includes Jim Hunt, a past president of the American Quarter Horse Association, and Jeffries estimated the group carries at least 150 years of combined horse experience. Livestock committees have included Justin Tupper, past president of the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association, and James Halverson of the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association.
“If I were trying to hire people to provide that kind of service and that kind of expertise, we would be back in the hole again economically,” he said. The fair runs with seven office staff and about six maintenance employees.
Asked what has driven three decades of growth, Jeffries did not hesitate. “It’s all about relationships.”
For fairgoers, his pitch is about value in a tight economy. “The fair is the best vacation you can take without leaving the city,” he said, pointing to carnival rides, concerts, rodeo, youth livestock shows, open class exhibits and free entertainment in the kids’ zone.
“If you’ve got five bucks in your pocket and you wander out through the gates, you can be entertained for hours,” he said.
This year’s lineup includes arenacross racing, the demolition derby, three nights of PRCA Range Days Rodeo, the Xtreme Broncs event, and three nights of concerts closing out the fair. Jo Dee Messina plays Aug. 27, Billy Currington Aug. 28 and Gary Allan Aug. 29.
The Central States Fair has operated under that name for 81 years, formally organizing in 1946. But Jeffries said events have been held on the grounds since 1887, when separate horse racing, 4-H and rodeo groups shared the site.
Multi-day passes are available at centralstatesfairinc.com and at Runnings. The grandstand pass covering all nine days is $100 and the premier pass is $175, with early pricing having closed Aug. 1.
Hear the full conversation with Ron Jeffries on the Rapid City Business Journal podcast, hosted by Murdoc and Shiloh Francis.
