Gold strikes at Alder Gulch in 1863 gave Nelson Story a fortune and laid the foundation of an economic empire that spanned three generations. In 1866, a desperate need for beef in Montana's gold camps led the young entrepreneur to bring the first substantial Texas herd into Montana Territory on one of America's longest cattle drives. During the 1870s, he headquartered his vast ranching operation in Bozeman near the headwaters of the East Gallatin River. Anticipating the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad, Story built a water-powered flour mill in 1882, and the Story Mill became the railroad's first local customer in 1883. By the early 1900s, under T. Byron Story, Nelson's son, the mill was the region's largest employer. In the early 1900s, dry land farming, crop diversification, and competition between the Northern Pacific and the Milwaukee Road broadened Bozeman's agricultural industry. Under new ownership, the mill survived the depressed 1920s, while increased tourism justified expansion of the Northern Pacific passenger depot. During the Great Depression and World War II, the Joseph Vollmer family and Nelson Story's grandson Malcolm expanded the livestock business by adding processing plants and auction yards. The district's varied elements reflect the regional industry, agriculture, and railroad technology that sustained Bozeman's growth from 1882 to 1945 and underscore the Story family's important legacy. More recently, Nelson Story and his historic cattle drive served as partial inspiration for Larry McMurtry's fictional saga, Lonesome Dove.