Bozeman was born in
Pickens County, Georgia, in January 1835 to William and Delila Sims Bozeman. Bozeman married Lucinda Catherine Ingram, and the couple had three daughters. After his mining claims in Colorado failed, Bozeman traveled to
Deer Lodge in western
Montana Territory in 1862 to work the gold fields discovered by James and
Granville Stuart. Bozeman later joined the January 1863 rush to newly discovered gold in
Bannack, Montana, but his claims there proved unsuccessful. 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". The route spanned the eastern front of the Rockies north to the Yellowstone River, then west across the Bozeman Pass. In 1864, he laid out the town of
Bozeman, Montana. Its proximity to the trail helped it to grow in the following years, especially as migration to Montana increased after the discovery of gold at
Virginia City in 1864. In 1865, federal troops began guarding the trail from hostile Indian attacks, since the trail ran through lands reserved by treaty to Indian tribes. The federal government constructed Forts
Reno,
Phil Kearny, and
C. F. Smith to defend the trail. The Sioux tribe "succeeded by closing the road by a massacre near Fort Kearny" in 1866. The trail was briefly abandoned. ==Death==