City Overview
Museum of the Rockies
Photo courtesy: Rob Outlaw
Montana State University
Photo courtesy: John Ansotegui
Story Mansion
Photo courtesy: Bill Kuney
In 1864, John Bozeman led a wagon train over Bozeman Pass into the Gallatin Valley, where his friends W. J. Beall and D. E. Rouse staked out the town site for the city of Bozeman. Never a boomtown, Bozeman has had a slow, steady growth, beginning the day its first log cabin was erected in 1864. Many early settlers were ricochets from the gold fields of Bannack, Butte and Helena. These ex-miners would learn the more stable lifestyle of merchants and farmers. Today, Bozeman is one of Montana's major tourism and agriculture centers.
Bozeman is one of the most diverse small towns in the Rocky Mountain West, with an eclectic mix of ranchers, artists, professors, ski enthusiasts and entrepreneurs drawn hereby world class outdoor recreation, Montana State University and a slice of old fashioned Americana.
Established in 1893, Montana State University's campus houses The Museum of the Rockies where you will travel through 4 billion years of Earth's history! The museum features a planetarium, paleontology, ethnology, and displays of dinosaurs and dinosaur eggs unearthed in Montana and is a member of the Montana Dinosaur Trail.
Art and culture is alive and well in Bozeman. It is home to many museums, talented artists and excellent galleries. You can find opera, theatre, symphony and ballet, as well as rodeo, the Sweet Pea Festival, the Wild West Winterfest and the Gallatin County Fair. In addition to the numerous attractions in Bozeman, there are literally hundreds of sights within a short drive, including Yellowstone National Park, that lure visitors from around the world.
Bozeman is surrounded by four mountain ranges, thousands of acres of the Gallatin National Forest and hundreds of miles of blue ribbon trout streams, so the recreation opportunities are virtually endless. Hiking, biking, fly fishing, and rafting. Bozeman is an important winter recreation area with three major ski areas nearby. Bridger Bowl Ski Area is located 16 miles northeast of town, Moonlight Basin and Big Sky Resort is 45 miles south. A Lone Peak pass provides a skier the biggest skiing in America with 5,512 skiable acres of terrain with 220 runs and over 110 miles on 3 separate mountains. Consider making Bozeman the base for your trip and stay awhile to get to know the people and the hospitality that make Bozeman, Montana one of the nation's best!
The National Register of Historic Places, the nation's list of heritage properties worthy of preservation, includes nine historic districts in Bozeman: the Bon Ton Historic District, the Bozeman Brewery Historic District, the Cooper Park Historic District, the Lindley Place Historic District, the Main Street Historic District, the North Tracy Avenue Historic District, Northern PacificStory Mill Historic District, South Tracy Avenue Historic District, and South TracySouth Black Historic District. Explore these neighborhoods and look for the interpretive markers that tell you more about their history and architecture.
