Main Street still has the smoky Cowboy Cafe and a western-wear shop with a life-size palomino revolving in front, but increasingly, the boutiques and upscale restaurants characterize downtown Bozeman.
Distinctive clothes, expensive items for the home, art, a place advertising "world cuisine with Montana style" - it's all here on both sides of the street.The shops are part of the new Bozeman, a town rediscovered within the last few years for its coziness and hospitality, cost of living, university environment and closeness to the mountains.
Yellowstone National Park is just 90 miles away, and anglers are within an hour or so of the Yellowstone and Madison rivers, both blue-ribbon trout streams. The skiing is good at Bridger Bowl and Big Sky, and once you've had enough of the great outdoors, you can drop in at The Leaf and Bean, the Main Street coffee house owned by actress Glenn Close.
Bozeman is widely regarded as one of Montana's growth communities, and housing construction in the valley surrounding town backs that up. Pastel homes with cedar decks, rounded windows and other touches of the day dot land vacant just a few years ago.
The 1990 census showed Bozeman and its 4.5-mile radius with a population of 28,660, up from 21,645 in 1980. County officials say most of that growth has occurred in the past three years or so.
Longtime residents say there is some pain in growth and change, but they add that trips to places like Denver or Portland, Ore., are quick reminders that this is still a good place to be.
"Bozeman is probably the crown jewel of the state," said Lou Spain, a hardware store owner whose great-great grandfather settled here. "But the opportunities for huge growth statewide just aren't there because we don't have the industries, the resources or the weather to satisfy huge numbers of people."