John Merin Bozeman (January 1835 – April 20, 1867) was a pioneer and frontiersman in the American West who helped establish the

Bozeman Trail The Bozeman Trail was an overland route in the western United States, connecting the gold rush territory of southern Montana to the Oregon Trail in eastern Wyoming. Its most important period was from 1863–68. Despite the fact that the major pa ...

through

Wyoming Territory The Territory of Wyoming was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 25, 1868, until July 10, 1890, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Wyoming. Cheyenne was the territorial capital. The bou ...

into the gold fields of southwestern

Montana Territory The Territory of Montana was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1864, until November 8, 1889, when it was admitted as the 41st state in the Union as the state of Montana. Original boundaries ...

in the early 1860s. He helped found the city of Bozeman, Montana in 1864, which is named for him.

Life

Bozeman was born in

Pickens County, Georgia Pickens County is a county located in the north-central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 29,431. The county seat is Jasper. Pickens County is part of the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, Georgia m ...

in January 1835 to William and Delila Sims Bozeman.Weiser-Alexander, Kathy. Legends of America, December 2019. https://www.legendsofamerica.com/john-bozeman/. Bozeman married Lucinda Catherine Ingram, and the couple had three daughters. In 1860, John Bozeman headed west to join in the

Pike's Peak Gold Rush The Pike's Peak Gold Rush (later known as the Colorado Gold Rush) was the boom in gold prospecting and mining in the Pike's Peak Country of western Kansas Territory and southwestern Nebraska Territory of the United States that began in July 1858 ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

, leaving behind his wife and children.Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. "John M. Bozeman." Encyclopedia Britannica, January 1, 2021. https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-M-Bozeman. After his mining claims in Colorado failed, Bozeman traveled to Deer Lodge in western

in 1862 to work the gold fields discovered by James and

Granville Stuart Granville Stuart (August 27, 1834 – October 2, 1918) was a pioneer, gold prospector, businessman, civic leader, vigilante, author, cattleman and diplomat who played a prominent role in the early history of Montana Territory and the state o ...

. Bozeman later joined the January 1863 rush to newly discovered gold in

Bannack, Montana Bannack is a ghost town in Beaverhead County, Montana, United States, located on Grasshopper Creek, approximately upstream from where Grasshopper Creek joins with the Beaverhead River south of Dillon. Founded in 1862, the town is a National His ...

, but his claims there proved unsuccessful. Seeing that it would be more profitable to "mine the miners" than to mine for gold, Bozeman enlisted the support of another unsuccessful Bannack prospector and friend, John Jacobs, to explore a new and shorter route into Montana Territory from the east.Fox, Michael. “The Murder Of John Bozeman.” Frontier Partisans. Frontier Partisans, September 6, 2019. https://frontierpartisans.com/16800/the-murder-of-john-bozeman/. In 1863, he and John Jacobs blazed the

, a cutoff route from the

Oregon Trail The Oregon Trail was a east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and emigrant trail in the United States that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail spanned part of what is now the state of Kans ...

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...

, and guided miners to

Virginia City Virginia City is a census-designated place (CDP) that is the county seat of Storey County, Nevada, and the largest community in the county. The city is a part of the Reno– Sparks Metropolitan Statistical Area. Virginia City developed as a boom ...

through the

Gallatin Valley Gallatin County is located in the U.S. state of Montana. With its county seat in Bozeman, it is the second-most populous county in Montana, with a population of 118,960 in the 2020 Census. The county's prominent geographical features are the ...

. Bozeman settled in the Gallatin Valley at a site "standing right in the gate of the mountains, ready to swallow up all tenderfeet that would reach the territory from the east, with their golden fleeces to be taken care of".Hofstede, David. “The Bozeman Boom - C&I Magazine.” Cowboys and Indians Magazine, May 1, 2019. https://www.cowboysindians.com/2019/04/the-bozeman-boom/#:~:text=In%201864%2C%20one%20year%20after,to%20be%20taken%20care%20of.%E2%80%9D. The route spanned the eastern front of the Rockies north to the Yellowstone River, then west across the Bozeman Pass.Scott, Kim Allen. “Historical Note.” John M. Bozeman Collection, 1866-1965. Montana State University, Special Collections and Archival Informatics, 2009. In 1864, he laid out the town of Bozeman, Montana. Its proximity to the trail helped it to grow in the following years,Goodman, Kent. "The Real John Bozeman: with sneaky ways and low morals," February 1, 2015. https://bozemanmagazine.com/articles/2015/02/01/101576-the-real-john-bozeman-with-sneaky-ways-and-low. especially as migration to Montana increased after the discovery of gold at

in 1864.“John M. Bozeman.” Your Dictionary. Accessed March 22, 2021. https://biography.yourdictionary.com/john-m-bozeman. In 1865, federal troops began guarding the trail from hostile Indian attacks, since the trail ran through lands reserved by treaty to Indian tribes. The federal government constructed Forts Reno, Phil Kearny, and C. F. Smith to defend the trail. The Sioux tribe "succeeded by closing the road by a massacre near Fort Kearny" in 1866. The trail was briefly abandoned.

Death

Bozeman was murdered on April 20, 1867 (aged 32) while traveling along the

Yellowstone River The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately long, in the Western United States. Considered the principal tributary of upper Missouri, via its own tributaries it drains an area with headwaters across the mountains a ...

to Fort C.F. Smith to secure a flour contract. His partner, Tom Cover, reported they had been attacked by a band of

Blackfeet The Blackfeet Nation ( bla, Aamsskáápipikani, script=Latn, ), officially named the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana, is a federally recognized tribe of Siksikaitsitapi people with an Indian reservation in Mon ...

Natives, but some historians suspected that Bozeman was killed by Cover himself, or perhaps even by a henchman of pioneer Montana rancher

Nelson Story Nelson Story Sr. (April 4, 1838 – March 10, 1926) was a pioneer Montana entrepreneur, cattle rancher, miner and vigilante, who was a notable resident of Bozeman, Montana. He was best known for his 1866 cattle drive from Texas with approximate ...

named Thomas Kent. The end of Bozeman's life is still a subject of debate today, and some theorize that he was murdered in revenge for his habit of flirting with married women.

Notes

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20050404124520/http://bozemantrail.org/bt-corridor.html * (as John Marion Bozeman) *John M. Bozeman Collection, https://www.lib.montana.edu/archives/finding-aids/0680.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Bozeman, John 1835 births 1867 deaths 1867 murders in the United States American city founders American murder victims Explorers of Montana Male murder victims People of the American Old West People from Bozeman, Montana People from Pickens County, Georgia People murdered in Montana Unsolved murders in the United States

Life

Death

Archives

See also

Notes

External links