The Bozeman Trail

Born in 1835 in Pickens County, Ga., Bozeman grew up at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains where placer mining was common. Believing that gold was... more

by Kay Novy

Title

The Bozeman Trail

Artist

Kay Novy

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

Born in 1835 in Pickens County, Ga., Bozeman grew up at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains where placer mining was common. Believing that gold was the hope for a brighter future, his father left his home, wife and five children for the California goldfields in 1849. He took the route across the Isthmus of Panama, but died on May 14, 1852 aboard the Clarissa Andrews before reaching California. As it took 40 days to make the trip up the west coast, the body of 33-year-old William Bozeman was thrown overboard.

Perhaps influenced by his father's example, John Bozeman left his wife and three young daughters behind in 1860 to join a group of 15 men going to the goldfields in Colorado. The diggings there were less profitable than he had hoped, so he ventured on to the next hub of activity, heading north to Montana Territory. By then, some Pikes Peak veterans had discovered rich placer deposits along the banks of Grasshopper Creek near Bannack. Bozeman, however, did not arrive until June 1862 when that rush was nearly over.

In May 1863, a new deposit was found at Alder Gulch, about 75 miles east of the earlier strike at Bannack. Word spread fast and the miners left the Grasshopper Creek strike and rushed to the new diggings. Soon the hillsides along Alder Gulch were covered with miners� tents, brush shelters and crude log cabins and when it came time to file the official document naming the new town, they called it Virginia City.

But Bozeman had changed careers. The steady stream of prospectors moving into the area led him to think that, instead of mining gold, he could make more money mining the miners. So, joining forces with local mountain man John Jacobs, he entered the guiding business. Bozeman was a promoter and Jacobs a seasoned guide who knew the lay of the land, the rivers, water holes and mountains. Together, they searched for a shortcut to the Montana goldfields from the Oregon Trail in what is now Wyoming.

- See more at: http://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/brief-history-bozeman-trail#sthash.yGn5ju4m.dpuf

Uploaded

July 16th, 2015