The pastoral poster—depicting healthy livestock, green pastures, and blue Rocky Mountain peaks—belies the intense struggles experienced at the turn of the century by hundreds of cattlemen, sheep men, horse breeders, and hog growers throughout the Midwest and West. Along with manufacturers and farmers nationwide, they were battling monopolistic railroad interests for lower freight rates. Unlike manufacturers, however, livestock growers also faced a monopolistic packing industry and paid high fees to stockyard owners where animals were held before they were transported.

In an effort to overcome their adverse economic circumstances, hundreds of stockmen gathered in Denver in 1898 to form the National Live Stock Association. The association combined the strength of state and territorial livestock associations, range associations, livestock commissions, and chambers of commerce to fight the monopolies and to lobby the government to open foreign markets.

Both Denver and Omaha bid to host the 1899 convention, with Denver offering advantages such as "irrigation reservoirs full of good stuff to drink." Denver won the bid. The 1899 convention committee decided to host the National Exhibition of Range Cattle in conjunction with the convention. The show, consisting of thirty-five carloads of feeder cattle, attracted great interest and was repeated intermittently over the next five years. In 1905, a dedicated group of Denver cattlemen decided to create an annual livestock show that would be second only to Chicago’s International stock show. They set the first annual National Western Stock Show’s date to coincide with the January 1906 merger of the American Stock Growers Association and the National Live Stock Association.