National Western Stock Show Guide

Every January since 1906, Denver has cleared sixteen days for the National Western Stock Show — the biggest stock show and one of the biggest pro rodeos in the country, drawing north of 700,000 people to the National Western Complex off I-70. It is not a themed rodeo experience: it’s the real machinery of the American cattle business — champion bulls sold for six figures, a mile-long cattle drive of Texas longhorns down 17th Street to kick it off, mutton bustin’ where five-year-olds cling to running sheep, and a PRCA rodeo that packs the arena nightly. The smell of the yards, the auctioneer’s chant, the grit — this is the West with its boots still on, in the dead of winter.