BHSS Pioneer Breakfast honors agriculture legends
The 24th annual Black Hills Stock Show® Pioneer Breakfast will be Feb. 6 at the Central States Fair Fine Arts Building.The breakfast will honor three area individuals who have been pioneers in the ranching industries and strong supporters of the Black Hills Stock Show®.
Recipients include Piedmont, South Dakota, rancher Eliot Kammerer and Janet Zietlow of Scenic, South Dakota. The Pioneer Spirit Award will be presented to Peggy Ables of Spearfish, South Dakota.
As a young child Eliot Kammerer was active in the Central States Fair and the Western Junior Livestock Shows. A 1976 SDSU graduate, Eliot settled on the family ranch in Piedmont with his bride, Cokie. In the 1980s Kammerer began to volunteer at the Central States Fair and continued to do so for 23 years. He served on the Central States Fair Board of Directors and was elected president in 1996-1997.
Janet Zietlow helped develop her husband’s cow/calf operation and a honeybee business in 1955. Through the years Janet has been involved in many regional organizations. She helped form the Good Neighbors and Catalyst Clubs in Rapid City and served on the Black Hills Stock Show Board for seven years. She was active with the 4-H Youth Day and School Tours.
In 2001 Peggy Ables became the director of the High Plains Western Heritage Center in Spearfish. The Topeka, Kansas, native oversaw numerous projects for the Heritage Center including the development of weekly bus tours bringing in nearly 600 weekly visitors during tourism season; Black Hills Stock Show specialty displays at the Journey Museum; procuring the establishment of The Great Western Cattle Trail history and tourism project in the Northern states; spearheading the induction of two local cowboys into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, OK.Ables has preserved the western heritage of pioneers and ranching in the territory to be appreciated by future generations.
The Pioneer Breakfast will begin at 9 a.m. with the award program to start at 9:30 a.m. Cost of the tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for children and can be purchased at the door or by contacting Dick Bray 605-521-0472 or NanCee Maynard 605-923-4494.
–Black Hills Stock Show
