Bozeman Stuff That Didn’t Exist Yet: My Photos From 13 Years Ago

It's like a kid's game: What's Missing From These Bozeman Pictures? I took them 12 years ago during a helicopter ride around the Gallatin Valley. It's weird to peek at them now to discover what WASN'T there, back then.

How many things from today can you NOT spot in these photos from 2009? :-)

Business growth, new roads, expanding subdivisions...choose any avenue of growth and Bozeman has certainly experienced it in the last 10 or 12 years.

The development of countless subdivisions is probably the most noticeable but changes to MSU, Bozeman High School, and the Bridger Foothills are all (NOT) on display with these pics.

For perspective, let's compare the time periods of when these pictures were taken to now. (Data was taken from US Census, Bozeman Chamber of Commerce, and the Gallatin Association of Realtors.)

• Population of the City of Bozeman via the Census, April 1, 2020: 53,293
• Population of the City of Bozeman via the Census, April 1, 2010: 37,280
• Population of MONTANA via the Census, in 2010: 980,152
• Population of MONTANA via the Census in 2020: 1,084,225

Massive changes have occurred on the campus of Montana State University. There have been big additions to the sports complex, huge dorm buildings constructed and complete replacement of older, failing buildings.

I think this picture might be the most telling. It's a little hard to see but if you know Bozeman well, you'll notice that North 7th, (non)development on Baxter and certainly the Cannery District looked much different in 2009.

Isn't the trail up to the "M" different too?