About Bozeman - KKY/TBS Midwest District Convention 2004 - Hosted by KKY-Beta and TBS-Delta Xi

History of Bozeman

From the 2003 Visitor Guide, Bozeman Chamber of Commerce

History is alive and abundant in the Bozeman area. Prior to White settlement the Gallatin Valley was used for generations by many different Indian bands. The Flathead, Sioux, Shoshone, Nez Perce, and Blackfeet all hunted for game and edible plants here. According to tribal lore Indians did not fight in the valley, but instead agreed to share the area's beauty and resources wit one another.

European fur traders may have first entered the valley in the late 1700s. The first written descriptions came from Lewis and Clark, who led their historic expedition to the Three Forks of the Missouri in 1805. The valley, wrote Lewis, was "surrounded in every direction with distant and lofty mountains." He and Clark named the three rivers that formed the Missouri the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin to honor President Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State James Madison, and Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.

Clark and a portion of the expedition cut through the Gallatin Valley during the return trip in 1806. "Set out from the head of the Missouri and the 3 Forks" penned Clark. "…and encamped on the bank of the Gallatin River which is a beautiful navigable stream." Led by Sacagawea, the party camped near the future townsite of Bozeman before crossing the Bozeman Pass to travel down the Yellowstone River.

For the next few decades mountain men roamed throughout southwest Montana, trapping beaver and acting as guides. John Colter, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, trapped in the area and was most likely the first white man to see Yellowstone Park. Later came Jim Bridger, for whom the Bridger Mountains to the northeast of Bozeman are named.

When gold was discovered in 1862 and Alder Gulch in 1863, in came the miners. Before the gold rush would end, more than 10,000 people lived in the Virginia City area. Some of the immigrants noticed the fertile fields of the Gallatin Valley and the potential it offered to farmers, who could sell goods to the miners. In 1864 John Bozeman, a Georgian who had left his family to find fortune in the west, led a wagon train across the Big Horn Basin of Wyoming and up the Yellowstone Valley to the Gallatin Valley. What was once an old trail used by Indians and trappers became known as the Bozeman Trail. The Sioux and Cheyenne conducted numerous raids along the "Bloody Bozeman" eventually forcing the government to close it in 1867.


	History of Bozeman From the 2003 Visitor Guide, Bozeman Chamber of Commerce History is alive and abundant in the Bozeman area. Prior to White settlement the Gallatin Valley was used for generations by many different Indian bands. The Flathead, Sioux, Shoshone, Nez Perce, and Blackfeet all hunted for game and edible plants here. According to tribal lore Indians did not fight in the valley, but instead agreed to share the area's beauty and resources wit one another. European fur traders may have first entered the valley in the late 1700s. The first written descriptions came from Lewis and Clark, who led their historic expedition to the Three Forks of the Missouri in 1805. The valley, wrote Lewis, was "surrounded in every direction with distant and lofty mountains." He and Clark named the three rivers that formed the Missouri the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin to honor President Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State James Madison, and Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. Clark and a portion of the expedition cut through the Gallatin Valley during the return trip in 1806. "Set out from the head of the Missouri and the 3 Forks" penned Clark. "…and encamped on the bank of the Gallatin River which is a beautiful navigable stream." Led by Sacagawea, the party camped near the future townsite of Bozeman before crossing the Bozeman Pass to travel down the Yellowstone River. For the next few decades mountain men roamed throughout southwest Montana, trapping beaver and acting as guides. John Colter, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, trapped in the area and was most likely the first white man to see Yellowstone Park. Later came Jim Bridger, for whom the Bridger Mountains to the northeast of Bozeman are named. When gold was discovered in 1862 and Alder Gulch in 1863, in came the miners. Before the gold rush would end, more than 10,000 people lived in the Virginia City area. Some of the immigrants noticed the fertile fields of the Gallatin Valley and the potential it offered to farmers, who could sell goods to the miners. In 1864 John Bozeman, a Georgian who had left his family to find fortune in the west, led a wagon train across the Big Horn Basin of Wyoming and up the Yellowstone Valley to the Gallatin Valley. What was once an old trail used by Indians and trappers became known as the Bozeman Trail. The Sioux and Cheyenne conducted numerous raids along the "Bloody Bozeman" eventually forcing the government to close it in 1867.