One big job that went into high gear Monday was the construction of pens and chutes for the livestock that will be entering the Civic Center during the course of the Stock Show. Much of that livestock will be involved in the rodeos scheduled for the arena, where the dirt for the arena floor was laid down over the weekend.

Another big job is organizing the 700 person workforce the arena requires during the Stock Show.

General manager Brian Maliske says, "That doesn't include all the stock show people that come in to do the showing of their live stock. And it doesn't include all the Sutton Rodeo people that come in to do all the setup for the actual contract animals themselves. So we're having on staff here: between our staff and Sutton Rodeos, there's well over a thousand people that are working this event."

That 1,000-person workforce also does not include the vendors and the people working for them.

The Black Hills Stock Show and Rodeo starts officially on Friday, although some slack and futurity events will take place before then.

-Al Van Zee