Bozeman was founded in August of 1864 by John Bozeman, a frontiersman from Georgia who led wagon trains west to the gold fields in the Montana Territory along the Bozeman Trail, a cutoff of the Oregon Trail. The town served as a supply hub for prospectors looking to strike it rich near Bannack and Virginia City.
Bozeman became the county seat of Gallatin County in 1867.
The Living History Farm represents a homestead typical of those found in southwestern Montana in 1890 – 1910. The exhibit area includes the Tinsley House, outbuildings, and surrounding gardens and fields.
The house is an original 1889 homestead. The milking barn was built in the early 1900s.
The farm gives visitors an insight into the daily lifestyle of the people who settled in Montana in the late 1800s and an appreciation for its agricultural history. Homesteaders used the resources they had or could acquire, to build their homes, provide food and clothing, and create a sense of community. Their lives were inseparable from labor. Daily chores included cooking, water hauling, wood chopping, and milking while washing clothes, baking bread, and churning butter needed to be done weekly.
Source: Museum of the Rockies
Missourian, William Tinsley traveled to Montana in 1864 to stake his own homestead claim in Willow Creek, MT.
William and his soon to be wife, Lucy Ann Nave met in Virginia City, MT where William worked for the Wells Fargo Stage Company and Lucy worked as a seamstress.
After William and Lucy were married, they moved to William's 160 acre homestead claim in Willow Creek and built a modest one room cabin in 1867.
Eight children and 20 years later, the Tinsley family began building the house that is now the Museum of the Rockies Living History Farm centerpiece. The Tinsley Family occupied this house on the original homestead claim until around 1920.
Transcribed from sign
Monitor Lift Handle Pump
circa: 1899
Manufacture: Baker
This old hand operated Monitor water pump still has the rod for use with a windmill. Possibly used on the original Tinsley Family Homestead.
The pump is actually in nice condition and it still functional. There is sign attached to a fence near the pump that reads as follows;
PLEASE Do Not Waste Water
Pump into a Watering Can
and Water Plants Around
The Tinsley House