The discovery of gold in 1863 around Bannack, Montana was a catalyst for white settlers to find an economical route to the gold fields. While some emigrants went to Salt Lake City and then north to Montana, pioneer John Bozeman and John M Jacobs developed the Bozeman Trail from Fort Laramie north through the Powder River country east of the Bighorn Mountains to the Yellowstone, then westward over what is now Bozeman Pass. "It is apparent that the great northern routes of travel to and from Montana, both by land and water, lie through the country of the Crow Indians..." established the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1867. However, the Lakotas "had gradually driven the Crows back upon the headwaters of the Yellowstone", and now they claimed "as a conquest almost the entire country traversed by what is called the Powder River route Trail ...". The trail passed through the Powder River hunting grounds of the Lakota or Western (Teton) Sioux, . A second trail, the Bridger Trail, passed west of the Bighorns but was longer and therefore less favored.