Adventures on the Bozeman Trail

Adventures on the Bozeman Trail

A party of twelve young men was easily induced to leave Colorado in the spring of 1862, arriving in Montana in June of that year. Among these young men was the sturdy and adventurous John M. Bozeman, for whom the Bozeman Trail was named, as were also the city of that name and the Bozeman Pass, between the Gallatin and Yellowstone Rivers.

The desire for adventure and seeing the West brought Bozeman from his home in Coweta County, Georgia, where he had left his wife and two children. After settling in Montana, Bozeman became interested in finding and locating a possible cross country road to the States, a road that would materially shorten the distance that then had to be traveled by old trails, to reach the mining camps in Montana, particularly Bannack and Virginia City.

John M. Bozeman

Bozeman and John M. Jacobs, in the winter of 1862-1863, left Bannack, then one of the most promising of young mining camps, for the Missouri River, with a determination to find this shorter route for the emigrants and freighters on their way to the Montana gold-fields. The customary longer routes then being used were the water route up the Missouri, the established trails, the Oregon and Overland, to Fort Hall, and the Fort Hall-Virginia City route.

Skirting along the south side of the Yellowstone in search of a possible road to the North Platte, the two young men found that they were being followed by the Sioux, who finally overtook Bozeman and his companion on the Powder River. The Indians stole their horses, ammunition and guns and set the men afoot, doubtless believing that no white man could long survive in the dangerous red man's country without gun, horse, or food.

Bozeman and his companion experienced all the hardships possible. Wandering for days, starving, shoeless and footsore, existing on a diet of grasshoppers, the exhausted but undaunted couple finally reached the Missouri. In the spring of 1863, at the Missouri, Bozeman took command of a wagon train of freighters and emigrants, with a determination to retrace his route on the east side of the Big Horn Mountains. When about one hundred miles into this unknown country northwest of Fort Laramie, the Indians contested the right of the white men to use this part of their hunting grounds for a wagon road, and drove the train back to the Sweetwater, from where the men sought the western slopes of the Big Horn Mountains, ultimately making safe passage into Montana. Bozeman did not accompany the train, but made another attempt to go over his road.

From the North Platte, Bozeman and nine of his men decided to defy fate by pushing up north into a country filled with hostile Indians, a roadless distance of seven hundred miles. Making the journey by night to escape the vigilant eyes of the red men, and enduring untold hardships, Bozeman finally reached the top of the Belt Mountains between the Gallatin and the Yellowstone. It was at this time that the pass was given the name of Bozeman by George W. Irvin, a member of Bozeman's train.

Big Horn Mountains, Wyoming From the journal of Captain James Stuart for May 11, 1863, is to be found an additional page of the life of Bozeman. "Looking across the river, about a mile above us, I saw three white men with six horses, three packed, three riding. They were corning down the river and I waited until they got opposite of us and then hailed them. They would neither answer nor stop, but kept the same course and at a little faster pace. I then sent Underwood and Stone across ahead of our pack train to overtake them and hear the news. . . We started to meet the strangers, not doubting but our men had overtaken them. . . We met our men returning without having seen anything of the travelers. . . We followed them for ten miles and then gave up the chase. It seems that as soon as they got out of our sight, they had started on a run, and kept in ravines and brush along the creek for about three miles till they got into the hills. . . We found that we could not overtake them. We found a fry pan and a pack of cards on their trail. None of us have the least idea who they are, where they come from or where they were going."

It was afterward learned that this party of three lone travelers consisted of John Bozeman and his partner, with his little eight year old daughter, being on their way from the Three Forks of the Missouri to Red Buttes on the North Platte. They were looking, it was ascertained, for a new wagon road which they found and which was afterward known as the "Jacobs and Bozeman Cut-off," the name used at times for the Bozeman Trail. A few days previous to the adventure with Stuart and his men, Bozeman had had a brush with the Indians, and seeing Stuart's men made Bozeman believe that there was to be an encounter with another band of Indians, and he did his utmost to make a safe escape.

In 1864 Bozeman brought back with him a large train from the Missouri, his line of travel being between the Black Hills and the Big Horn Mountains, his cherished road. Jim Bridger also was taking a train through by a new way he had found possible on the west side of the Big Horn Mountains and down Clark's Fork. Bridger had declared that Bozeman's proposed road east of the mountains was an impracticable route. Over the rival road on the west side of the Big Horn Mountains, Bridger, with several weeks' start, finally reached the Yellowstone ahead of Bozeman." But his road took him into the Gallatin Valley, up the Shields River and Brackett Creek, and down Bridger Creek, a very roundabout route. Bozeman's more direct route landed him in the Gallatin Valley ahead of Bridger. From this point the two trains raced from the West Gallatin into Virginia City, arriving but a few hours apart.

Again in 1864, trail maker Bozeman successfully conducted another emigrant train over his chosen route to the Yellowstone River into the Gallatin Valley. The ease of travel, the shortening of the miles, the abundance of water, timber, grass, and game, and the saving of time by using this road, at once made this the most desired trail to Montana, largely to the exclusion of the more-frequented lines of travel. For a time this way to the mines was known as "the Virginia City Road" and "the Bighorn Road," but the original title for the man who dared to defy the Indians, became the accepted appellation, hence, the Bozeman Trail.

During the month of July, 1864, one emigrant train consisting of one hundred and fifty wagons, three hundred and sixty-nine men, thirty-six women, fifty-six children, six hundred and thirty-six oxen, one hundred and ninety-four cows, seventy-nine horses and a dozen mules, of a valuation of one hundred and thirty thousand dollars, reached the gold-fields over this forbidden path." Invasion of even one caravan of this magnitude enraged the Indians to hostile activity, for the penetration of this, their land, meant the destruction of the wild game and the influx and control by the whites. If fight it must be, the country of the Powder River and its minor streams was an inviting battlefield.

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Gallatin Valley today, courtesy Gallatin River Realty

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From the Rocky Mountain General Store

From Hardtack to Home Fries by Barbara Haber

Culinary historian Barbara Haber takes a unique approach to the history of cooking in America, focusing on a remarkable assembly of little-known or forgotten Americans who helped shape the eating habits of the nation. As Curator of Books at Harvard University's Schlesinger Library, Haber had access to more than 16,000 cookbooks from which she has drawn inspiring and often surprising stories of the way meals have shaped America's past. Peppered throughout with recipes, Haber's fascinating survey adds a delicious new dimension to America's cultural heritage. New, paperback.