John M. Bozeman - Unveiling of Monument Recalls Eventful Career of Montana’s Famous Trailblazer

(Printed in the Hysham Echo June 17, 1926)
Cont. from last week

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.

First Wagon Train in 1863

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 10 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 ground 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, according to Brininstool, 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 700 miles. Making the journey by night to escape the vigilant eyes of the redmen, 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.

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, famous scout and frontiersman, 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 impractical 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. This road was at times, along the course of the Big Horn river which was crossed in the vicinity of the present city of Basin, Wyoming. From here for many miles through northwestern Wyoming and southern Montana, Bridger’s route followed the present day route of the Burlington railroad from Basin, Wyoming, to Bridger, Montana.

Captain Clark Visited Pass

Bridger’s road took him into the Gallatin valley by going up the Shields river, just a few miles west of Hunter’s Hot Springs, and then west up Brackett creek, then down what is now Bridger creek. Bozeman’s more direct route southwest of what is now Livingston, 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.

Concerning this incident, Olin D. Wheeler, well known historian of the northwest who died last fall in St. Paul, says: “Bozeman traversed what has since been known as the Bozeman pass, into the Gallatin valley, and Bridger entered the valley viz. Bridger creek. The route and pass which Bozeman followed were those used by Capt. William Clark in 1806 (pointed out as the right path by Sakakawea, the Shoshone Indian woman guide) and it became a well known thoroughfare, following particularly the old Indian and buffalo road, and it was in constant use until the construction of the Northern Pacific railroad supplanted it.

“The entrances to the valley used by these frontiersmen are within a few miles of each other, the one used by Bridger being to the north of the other. The names of both of these men are perpetuated Bridger creek, Bridger mountains, Bridger pass, and Bridger peak; and by Bozeman pass, Bozeman creek and the city of Bozeman, all in and about Gallatin county. Bozeman pass, which should have been called Sakakawea pass, is supposed to be the one by which John Colter made his way across the mountains to Lisa’s fort on the Big Horn river after he escaped from the Blackfeet at the time Pots was killed.

A $130,000 Caravan

Again in 1864, trailmaker Bozeman successfully conducted another emigrant train over his 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 150 wagons, 369 men, 36 women, 56 children, 636 oxen, 194 cows, 79 horses and a dozen mules, of a valuation of $130,000, 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.

In April, 1867, Bozeman, Tom Cooper and others, on their way down the Yellowstone, en route to Fort C. F. Smith, made a camp where they encountered Indians who stole many of their horses. The following day, April 18, after this attack, while cooking the noon meal, five Indians entered the camp leading the stolen horses of the day before. Bozeman, believing the Indian to be friendly Crows, invited them to the meal, when without warning, two Indians shot Bozeman through the body. Cooper escaped into the bushes. The Indians stole the horses and blankets but did not scalp Bozeman. It was afterward learned that these Indians were Blackfeet, fugitives from their own tribe on account of having killed one of their chiefs, and that at this time, they were living with the Crows.

Buried at Bozeman

According to Nelson Story, Sr., who caused a monument to be erected in the Bozeman cemetery over the grave of John M. Bozeman, a grave that stands at the brow of a bluff which the cemetery crowns, and overlooking the beautiful city which has grown up since Bozeman ushered in its first settlers, Bozeman was a reckless man and refused to see danger ahead when the Indians came into his camp, though his companions warned him. He good naturedly set to cooking a meal for the redmen, talking with them as he cooked. Suddenly an Indian from behind the shelter of the one to whom Bozeman was talking, fired at Bozeman. The ball struck him in the abdomen, killing him instantly. He was thirty-two years old at the time of his death.

Mountain Chief, according to Mr. Story, was one of the renegade Blackfeet, and he was seen at Fort C. F. Smith the next year by W. S. McKenzie who was a member of the Bozeman party at the time of the murder. McKenzie asked the commanding officer to put Mountain Chief under arrest, but the officer, according to McKenzie’s narrative to Mr. Story, feared the Indian would be hanged and trouble would ensue, so he refused the request.

A newspaper correspondent writing from Union City, Montana Territory, October 21, 1867, a few months after the Bozeman murder, made this comment:
“The three murderers of Colonel Bozeman came in and received their annuities recently at Fort Benton, and bore their gifts straightway to hostile camps. Two of them were sons of a chief who professes to be at peace with the whites. He does the part of diplomacy, while his sons and followers rob and butcher. A large portion of the annuities received by this tribe go to those who are on the warpath; he shields the fraud and aids the merciless enemy.”

Trail Precipitated Wars

The city of Bozeman was established in 1864. Three years later, Fort Ellis, located about three miles east of the city, was built to guard the Bozeman pass which was within 16 miles of the ground of thousands of hostile Indians to the east. A command of three companies of United States troops was stationed at the fort.

The Bozeman trail brought on complications for the government. It started at Fort Sedgwick on the North Plate, and then northwest into the Powder river country, along the east side of the Big Horn mountains, across the Powder, Crazy Woman’s Fork, and Tongue river to the Big Horn. From here a road was to be used going west over Dubois creek, Pryor’s river, Clark’s Fork, the Still water, and the Boulder to the Yellowstone, where, a few miles northeast of Bozeman pass, a ferry was crossed. The road continued through the pass to the city of Bozeman and up the Madison, thence west to Virginia City.

This route was through the heart of the Indian country, the invasion of which the white race had been forbidden by a treaty made by the government with Sioux chiefs at Fort Laramie in 1851, and renewed and amended in 1865, allotting special land for the exclusive use of the Indians.

The violations of these treaties in the part of our government, and the using of the Indians’ choice hunting grounds, by ultimately establishing a military road across this favorite piece of country, precipitated a series of wars, the savageness and bitterness of which have not been equalled by any of our Indian wars.

The beginning of the contest for territorial possession was in the raids by the Indians; the results were the Platte Bridge fight, the Powder River Indian expedition, the Fetterman disaster, and the Wagon Box and Hayfield fights. The finale was Custer’s battle on the Little Big Horn. Print this post