Beaver trappers worked these rivers until the mid-19th century, and Belle Fourche became a well known fur-trading rendezvous point.

During and after the gold rush of 1876, farmers and ranchers settled in the fertile valleys, growing food for the miners and their animals.

At the time, the open plains for hundred of miles in all directions were also being filled with huge herds of Texas and Kansas cattle.

After serving in the Montana legislature in 1871–1873 (and being instrumental in the establishment of a National Park at Yellowstone), he had come to the Black Hills to sell supplies to the Deadwood miners.

During the next 14 years, Bullock acquired land as homesteaders along the Belle Fourche River "proved up" and sold out.

When the railroad came to the Hills and refused to pay the prices demanded by the nearby township of Minnesela, he was ready.

By 1895, Belle Fourche was shipping 2,500 carloads of cattle per month in the peak season, making it the world's largest livestock-shipping point.

Belle Fourche today serves a large trade area of ranches and farms.

Belle Fourche has a climate lying on the boundary between humid continental (Köppen Dfb/Dfa) and cool semi-arid (BSk).

It is characterized, like most of South Dakota, by summers with mild mornings giving way to very warm to hot and occasionally sweltering afternoons, and chilly, though extremely variable, winters.

The extreme warming effect of the chinook winds can be seen in 74 °F or 23.3 °C – the hottest winter temperature recorded in the city – being reached on December 18, 1979 only two days after the minimum had been −27 °F or −32.8 °C.

Owing to frequent thunderstorms, the spring season is the wettest part of the year, and the wettest months since records began in 1908 has been May 1982 with 10.70 inches or 271.8 millimeters of precipitation, and the highest daily precipitation has been 4.25 inches or 108.0 millimeters on May 20, 1982.

The summer is generally more settled than the spring, although heavy rains can occur in this period, as when 7.62 inches (193.5 mm) fell in August 1923.

Fall cooling is rapid: the first freeze can be expected on September 22, the first measurable snowfall on October 25 and the first zero temperature on November 28.