The American pioneer John M. Bozeman (1837-1867), a trailblazer in the Far West, was responsible for opening a route form the Oregon Trail northwest to the Montana gold fields.

John Bozeman was born in January 1837 in Pickens County, Ga. He joined the gold seekers headed for Colorado in the spring of 1860, abandoning his wife and three small children. Unsuccessful in finding a paying claim in Colorado, he went to Gold Creek, in present Montana, in June 1862. When news came of the discovery of gold on Grasshopper Creek in the Beaverhead Valley (Montana), Bozeman joined the stampede that led to the founding of Bannack.

At this time there were two alternative routes from the east: the slow and expensive water route up the Missouri River to Ft. Benton, and then west along the Mullan road; or the Oregon Trail to Ft. Hall, then north or east by a circuitous...