John Bozeman
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John M. Bozeman (1835–1867) was born in Pickens County, Georgia. In 1858 he headed west, abandoning his wife and children. Bozeman came to Deer Lodge in western Montana from Colorado in 1862 after his mining claims there failed. Doing little better in Montana, he soon saw that it would be more profitable to "mine the miners" than to mine for gold. In 1863, he and John Jacobs blazed the Bozeman Trail, a cutoff route from the Oregon Trail in Wyoming to Bannack, Montana, and guided miners to Virginia City through the Gallatin Valley.
Bozeman settled in the Gallatin Valley at a site "standing right in the gate of the mountains, ready to swallow up all tenderfeet that would reach the territory from the east, with their golden fleeces to be taken care of". In 1864, he laid out the town of Bozeman, Montana; its proximity to the trail helped it to grow in succeeding years.
Bozeman was murdered while traveling along the Yellowstone River in April 1867. His partner, Tom Cover, reported they had been attacked by a band of Blackfoot Indians. Inconsistencies in his story have led historians to suspect that Bozeman was murdered by Cover himself.
