Trailblazers John Bozeman and John Jacobs opened the Bozeman Trail in 1864 as a shortcut between the Overland Road and the newly discovered Montana gold fields. The trail began near present Casper, Wyoming and entered the Gallatin Valley over Bozeman Pass. While some emigrants left the trail at present Livingston and went up the Yellowstone River to Emigrant Gulch, most continued over the pass and traveled on existing local roads to Bannack and Virginia City. Branches of the road led to Helena and Diamond City in Confederate Gulch north of here. Freighters, stagecoaches, and other conveyances were a common sight on the road over Norris Hill in the 1860s. Although Indian resistance to the trail in the Powder River country forced the closure of it to emigrants after the 1866 travel season, the Bozeman to Virginia City portion of the road was a major thoroughfare in Montana Territory. Agricultural products produced by Gallatin Valley farmers, ranchers and mill owners found a lucrative market in the gold camps of southwestern Montana. Today’s U.S. Highway 287 remains an important route in southwestern Montana.
Different alignments of the Bozeman Trail to Virginia City are visible on the hillside southwest of the highway.
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.