There’s a rodeo nearly every weekend during summer in South Dakota, and few are as steeped in tradition as the gathering in Interior. Cowboys have challenged each other’s roping and riding skills there since the early 1920s, when it was among the largest rodeos in the country. Today the Interior rodeo doesn’t draw as well as it once did, but bronc rides and bull rides at the edge of the Badlands are still as entertaining and exciting as ever.

Rapid City photographer Jeremiah M. Murphy made his annual visit to the Interior Frontier Days rodeo on July 4. Here are a few snapshots from the evening’s bronc rides and behind the chutes scenes. If you want to take in a South Dakota rodeo with your own eyes, there are great opportunities this weekend at Boss Cowman Days in Lemmon and the Wall Celebration, or next weekend at the Burke Stampede Rodeo and the Geddes rodeo.