Some people from Bozeman and Gallatin
Valley think their hometown is pretty
special, but this isn’t just misty sentimentality.
Experts from around the country with
far-ranging reasons are in agreement.
Bizjournals ranked Bozeman number one for small town’s
best quality of life (www.bizjournals.com). It wasn’t a
casual assessment. Intrigued that more than 1.7 million
people moved from metropolitan areas to small cities and
rural areas, Bizjournals rated the 577 micropolitan areas
in the uS (grouped population centers ranging between
10,000 to 50,000 people) with strict and quantitative
criteria, and Bozeman topped its 576 rivals. The criteria
ranged from percentages of people with higher education,
population and per capita income growth, a strong grow-
ing small business base, affordable housing, low taxes, easy
commutes and the like.
Interestingly, with far different criteria, Outside Magazine
rated Bozeman of one of 15 best sports cities, and num-
ber five on a 2003 list of 40 best college towns. Skiing
Magazine rated Bozeman as one of the ten best ski towns
in america. In 2001, Bozeman was an all-american city.
These accolades fall to a montana town with less than
35,000 people in a state with just one telephone area code
for everybody. often called one of the last best places, an
interesting collection favorable location factors collide
in the Bozeman area: a gateway to Yellowstone national
Park; a sportsman and outdoor recreationist paradise; a
burgeoning film and arts hub; a ski town; and the center
of commerce for ranching and agriculture in the fertile
Gallatin Valley. Bozeman is also home to montana State
university’s 13,000 students and 825 faculty members,
representing over 40% of the city’s population.
By ann Zimmerman, Special to dcd home
Everybody
lovesBozeman
Photo courtesy Harker Design.
Photo courtesy Graden Construction Incorporated
16 | www.dcdhome.com
It is questionable whether John Bozeman anticipated all
of this when he founded a settlement along a trail tha