Bozeman ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Gallatin County, Montana, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, Bozeman's population was 53,293, making it Montana's fourth-largest city. It is the principal city of the Bozeman, Montana, metropolitan statistical area, consisting of all of Gallatin County, with a population of 118,960. It is the second-largest of Montana's statistical areas.
History Early history For many years, indigenous people of the United States, including the Shoshone, Nez Perce, Blackfeet, Flathead, Crow, and Sioux traveled through the area, called the "Valley of the Flowers." The Gallatin Valley in particular, in which Bozeman is located, was primarily within the territory of the Crow people.
19th century
William Clark visited the area in July 1806 as he traveled east from Three Forks along the Gallatin River. The party camped east of what is now Bozeman, at the mouth of Kelly Canyon. The journal entries from Clark's party briefly describe the future city's location.
John Bozeman In 1863, John Bozeman, a pioneer and frontiersman from Pickens County, Georgia, along with a partner named John Jacob, opened the Bozeman Trail, a new northern trail off the Oregon Trail leading to the mining town of Virginia City through the Gallatin Valley and the future location of the city of Bozeman.
John Bozeman, with Daniel Rouse and William Beall, platted the town in August 1864, stating "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." Red Cloud's War closed the Bozeman Trail in 1868, but the town's fertile land still attracted permanent settlers.
Bozeman's death has been the source of much controversy. For years, the story was circulated that Bozeman and one of his friends, Tom Cover, were hiking to a neighboring town when Blackfeet attacked and killed Bozeman. Recent speculation has that Cover committed the murder and blamed the Blackfeet for it.
Nelson Story In 1866, Nelson Story, a successful Virginia City, Montana, gold miner originally from Ohio, entered the cattle business. Story braved the hostile Bozeman Trail to successfully drive some 1,000 head of Longhorn cattle into Paradise Valley just east of Bozeman. Eluding the U.S. Army, which tried to turn Story back to protect the drive from hostile Indigenous Americans, Story's cattle formed one of the earliest significant herds in Montana's cattle industry. Story established a sizable ranch in the Paradise Valley, with holdings in the Gallatin Valley. He later donated land to the state for the establishment of Montana State University.
Fort Ellis Fort Ellis was established in 1867 by Captain R. S. LaMotte and two companies of the 2nd Cavalry, after the murder of John Bozeman near the mouth of Mission Creek on Yellowstone River, and considerable political disturbance in the area led local settlers and miners to feel a need for added protection. The fort, named for Gettysburg casualty Colonel Augustus Van Horne Ellis, was decommissioned in 1886, and few remnants are left at the actual site, now occupied by the Fort Ellis Experimental Station of Montana State University. In addition to Fort Ellis, a short-lived fort, Fort Elizabeth Meagher (also simply known as Fort Meagher), was established in 1867 by volunteer militiamen. This fort was located east of town on Rocky Creek.
Other In 1864, W. W. Alderson described Gallatin County as "one of the most beautiful and picturesque valleys the eye ever beheld, abounding in springs of clear water." Many tended to agree, and Bozeman quickly garnered the nickname of "The Egypt" of Montana.
After incorporation, the first issue of the weekly Avant Courier newspaper, the precursor of today's Bozeman Chronicle, was published in Bozeman on September 13, 1871.
Bozeman's main cemetery, Sunset Hills Cemetery, was given to the city in 1872, when English lawyer and philanthropist William Henry Blackmore purchased the land after his wife Mary Blackmore died of pneumonia in Bozeman in July 1872.
The first library in Bozeman was formed by the Young Men's Library Association in a room above a drugstore in 1872. It later moved to the mayor's office and was taken over by the city in 1890. The first Grange meeting in Montana Territory was held in Bozeman in 1873. The Northern Pacific Railway reached Bozeman from the east in 1883. By 1900, Bozeman's population had reached 3,500.
In 1892, the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries established a fish hatchery on Bridger Creek at the entrance to Bridger Canyon. The fourth-oldest fish hatchery in the United States, the facility ceased to be primarily a hatchery in 1966 and became the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Bozeman National Fish Hatchery, later a fish technology and health center. The center receives around 5,000 visitors a year, observing biologists working on diet testing, feed manufacturing technology, fish diseases, brood stock development, and improvement of water quality.
Bozeman was home to early minor league baseball. In 1892, Bozeman fielded a team in the Class B level Montana State League. In 1909, the Bozeman Irrigators played as members of the Class D level Inter-Mountain League. Both leagues disbanded.
Montana State University was established in 1893 as the state's land-grant college, then named the Agricultural College of the State of Montana. By the 1920s, the institution was known as Montana State College, and in 1965, it became Montana State University.
20th century Bozeman's first high school, Gallatin Valley High School, was built on West Main Street in 1902. Later known as Willson School, named for notable Bozeman architect Fred Fielding Willson, son of Lester S. Willson, the building still stands today and functions as administrative offices for the Bozeman School District.
In the early 20th century, over of the Gallatin Valley were planted in edible peas harvested for both canning and seed. By the 1920s, canneries in the Bozeman area were major producers of canned peas, and at one point, Bozeman produced roughly 75% of all seed peas in the United States. The area was once known as the "Sweet Pea Capital of the Nation", referencing the prolific edible pea crop. To promote the area and celebrate its prosperity, local business owners began a "Sweet Pea Carnival" that included a parade and queen contest. The annual event lasted from 1906 to 1916. Promoters used the inedible but fragrant and colorful sweet pea flower as an emblem of the celebration. In 1977, the "Sweet Pea" concept was revived as an arts festival rather than a harvest celebration, growing into a three-day event that is one of the largest festivals in Montana.
The first federal building and post office was built in 1915. Many years later, while unused, it became a film location, along with downtown Bozeman, in A River Runs Through It (1992) by Robert Redford, starring Brad Pitt. It is now used by Human Resource Development Council, a community organization.
In 1986, the site of the Idaho Pole Co. on Rouse Avenue was designated a Superfund site and placed on the National Priorities List. Idaho Pole treated wood products with creosote and pentachlorophenol on the site between 1945 and 1997.
The Museum of the Rockies, created in 1957 as the gift from Butte physician Caroline McGill, is a part of Montana State University and an affiliate institution of the Smithsonian. It is Montana's premier natural and cultural history museum and houses permanent exhibits on dinosaurs, geology, and Montana history, as well as a planetarium and a living history farm. Paleontologist Jack Horner was the museum's first curator of paleontology and brought national notice to the museum for his fossil discoveries in the 1980s.
21st century
From a rank of sixth in the early 1980s, Bozeman has grown to become the fourth-largest city in Montana.
Growth in the Gallatin Valley prompted the Gallatin Airport Authority in 2009 to expand the Gallatin Field Airport with two new gates, an expanded passenger screening area, and a third baggage carousel. Subsequently, Gallatin Field was renamed Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport. Bozeman has been one of Montana's fastest-growing cities from 1990 into the new millennium, currently growing at a fluctuating rate around 2–3% annually.
In 2009, a natural gas explosion on the 200 block of East Main Street destroyed five buildings housing several businesses, including Boodles Restaurant and the Montana Trails Gallery. The explosion, caused by a separation in an underground gas line, killed a 36-year-old gallery employee, and the resulting fire burned for more than a day.
Geography Bozeman is located at an elevation of . The Bridger Mountains are to the north-northeast, the Tobacco Root Mountains to the west-southwest, the Big Belt Mountains and Horseshoe Hills to the northwest, the Hyalite Peaks of the northern Gallatin Range to the south and the Spanish Peaks of the northern Madison Range to the south-southwest. Bozeman is east of the continental divide, and Interstate 90 passes through the city. It is east of Butte, west of Billings, and north of Yellowstone National Park.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is covered by water.
Climate Bozeman experiences a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfb) as it is located in a more humid microclimate setting. Bozeman and the surrounding area receive significantly higher rainfall than much of the central and eastern parts of the state, up to of precipitation annually compared to the common throughout much of Montana east of the Continental Divide. Combined with fertile soils, this means plant growth is relatively lush. This undoubtedly contributed to the Gallatin Valley's early nickname as the "Valley of the Flowers", as well as the establishment of Montana State University, the state's agricultural college, in the city. Bozeman has cold, snowy winters and relatively warm summers, though due to high elevation, temperature changes from day to night can be significant. The highest temperature ever recorded in Bozeman was on July 31, 1892. The lowest recorded temperature, , occurred in 1957 and 1983.
In 2019, Bozeman experienced unusually warm and dry temperatures during December. Montana State University campus reported a daily average of of precipitation for the month, some of the lowest numbers seen in over 120 years. The school also recorded just over of snowfall during December, the second-lowest snowfall ever recorded for that month. Additionally, maximum temperatures were warmer and lowest temperatures were above typical standards in previous Decembers. December 2023 was also unusually warm and dry, in line with the country as a whole.
Demographics
2020 census As of the 2020 census, Bozeman had a population of 53,293 and 21,735 households. The population density was . About 99.6% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.4% lived in rural areas.
The median age was 28.1 years; 15.4% of the residents were under 18 and 10.4% were 65 or older. For every 100 females, there were 108.9 males, and for every 100 females 18 and over, there were 110.2 males.
For residents 25 or older, 97.8% had graduated from high school or higher, and 64.2% held at least a bachelor's degree.
Of the 21,735 households, 21.5% had children under 18 living in them. About 33.6% were married-couple households, 27.9% had a male householder with no spouse or partner present, and 28.2% had a female householder with no spouse or partner present. Roughly 31.1% of all households were made up of individuals, 8.9% had someone living alone who was 65 or older, and the average household size was 2.24 people.
The city had 23,535 housing units, of which 7.6% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.4% and the rental vacancy rate was 4.0%.