Bozeman, Montana

In 1864, John Bozeman led a wagon train over Bozeman Pass into the Gallatin Valley, where his friends W. J. Beall and D. E. Rouse staked out the townsite for the city of Bozeman. Located in this beautiful mountain valley, Bozeman has become one of Montana's major tourism and agriculture centers. It is also the centerpiece of the fertile Gallatin Valley, a large architectural area. Another important part of this thriving community is Montana State University. Established in 1893 as Montana State College, MSU has become the largest unit of the Montana University system, with around 10,000 students. MSU offers a diversified curriculum with emphasis on engineering, agricultural studies, and its film and television school.

Many of Bozeman's neighborhoods and parks still have the feel of a sleepy college town with frat houses and quaint, comfortable homes. The downtown area features a main street with rows of turn-of-the-century buildings. Bozeman is ringed by majestic peaks and steep canyons; it is a starting point for connections to the Gallatin Canyon and Yellowstone National Park.

Annual events include the Montana Winter Fair in January and the Sweet Pea Festival in August. Bozeman is an important winter recreation area with two major ski areas nearby. Bridger Bowl is located 16 miles northwest of town and Big Sky Ski and Summer Resort is 45 miles south.

Coffrin's Old West Gallery houses the fine collection of photographs by Montana's famous frontier photographer, L. A. Huffman. Huffman came to Montana Territory in 1878 to become post photographer at Fort Keogh, and later opened a studio in Miles City. This collection of photos is a magnificent pictorial history of that era from the last of the Indian Wars through the coming of the railroad and finally the cattleman. Reproductions made from Huffman negatives are marketed worldwide.

The Museum of the Rockies is on the Montana State University campus and houses a planetarium, paleontology, ethnology, and a history section, an auditorium, an enclosed courtyard, and objects of historic and cultural importance from the northern Rocky Mountains. Displays include dinosaurs and dinosaur eggs unearthed in Montana, Plains Indian artifacts, pioneer exhibits, Western art and "hands on" exhibits such as a two-story log homestead house, built in 1889 in Willow Creek and moved some 30 miles to the museum site.

Tucked into the mountains just 16 miles northeast of Bozeman, Bridger Bowl ski area offers lots of luxurious powder snow known as "cold smoke" by those who ski it regularly. The variety of terrain is terrific, from steep-rock-walled chutes to long, gentle slopes, wide-open powder bowls to knee-deep moguls. Skiers are served by five double chair lifts and one quad chair lift, a base cafeteria and bar & grill, day care, a mid-mountain cafeteria, ski school, rental and retail shop and ski patrol. Bridger Bowl's mid-mountain chalet seats 290 people indoors and 110 on its large, south-facing deck. The chalet features recycled timbers with post and beam construction, a large stone fireplace, big south-facing windows and private meeting and dining area.

Bridger Bowl has a central reservations office representing more than 40 properties. A wide variety of motels, cabins, bed and breakfast inns, condominiums and chalets from slopeside to downtown Bozeman are available. Most motels provide special Bridger Bowl group rates for reservations made through the service.

COAM Member Listings in Bozeman: