The Bozeman Trail 1863 – 1868

The Bozeman Trail was established in 1863 by John Bozeman and John Jacobs as a shortcut to the Montana goldfields. It started from Virginia City, at Adler Gulch, in Montana, heading southward across Wyoming and the Powder River country where it junctioned with the California-Oregon Trail following the North Platte River in central Wyoming. Approximately one thousand emigrants a year traveled the trail between 1863 and 1866, going on foot, on horseback, or by wagons, usually Prairie Schooners drawn by teams of mules or oxen. The trail was 530 miles long and was traveled primarily during the summer months at about 20 miles per day. Because of continuous Indian attacks between 1866 and 1868, travel on the trail was reduced to freight and military wagons. The Treaty of 1868 closed the trail to emigrant use, and the advance of the Trans-Continental Railroad eliminated its importance as a shortcut. The trail was used by General Crook during the Sioux Wars of 1876. Sections of the trail were replaced first by stage roads or cultivated fields and then by highways, and even undisturbed sections disappeared as natural erosion filled many of the existing wagon ruts.

Wyoming · United States