The White House has confirmed that President Barack Obama will be in Bozeman on Aug. 14th White House officials would not say Friday what Obama planned to do while in the city.

However, White House officials did tell us that the First Family plans to travel to Yellowstone National Park. The White House also confirmed that they will travel to several national parks next week.

The last time a sitting President visited Yellowstone National Park was Clinton in 1996

Obama has been pushing his policy priorities - including health care at events around the country. 

President Barack Obama and his family will visit, Yellowstone National Park, Grand Junction, Colo., the Grand Canyon and Phoenix as part of his wing out West.

Spokesman Robert Gibbs says the trip is meant to encourage people to visit the national park system, and it will occur during a "fee-free" weekend for national parks. And, he said Obama also will promote his policies during the trip.

The president also is expected to hold town hall style meetings at some of the places as he pushes Congress to pass an overhaul of the health care system.

While on his Western swing, Obama is to address the convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, being held in Phoenix. It's a summertime tradition for presidents.

Numerous sources are reporting that President Barack Obama is planning a visit to the Bozeman area next week.

While the concrete details about a the visit remain sketchy, Bozeman Mayor Kaaren Jacobson says officials are expecting Obama to visit next Friday, and she hopes to know the specifics by Monday.

Meanwhile, Bozeman Chief of Police Mark Tymrak confirmed Wednesday that Obama is visiting the area. The presidential press office says it cannot comment now, but promises to issue a statement before the end of the week.

Some believe Obama is likely to talk about his health care initiatives, which are at the top of his agenda right now. Montana Sen. Max Baucus is leading the congressional push to revamp the nation's health care system. The President has been holding health care town hall meetings across the country in recent days.

The last time a sitting President visited Montana was when President George W. Bush visited Billings in 2006 to campaign for former Senator Conrad Burns. Bush also visited Great Falls in 2005 when he was advocating Social Security reform.

President Obama is no stranger to Big Sky Country. During his campaign, Obama made several stops in Montana.

Next Friday's visit will be Obama's second stop in Bozeman and his sixth in Montana. As a presidential hopeful, he campaigned in Bozeman in May 2008 where thousands of people packed Montana State University's Brick Breeden Fieldhouse to cheer on the then-senator from Illinois. He spoke to the crowd about changing the way business is done in Washington, DC by pushing aside special interests, creating universal health care and ending the war in Iraq.

Before heading to Bozeman in May 2008, Obama visited Billings and the Crow Agency where he was made an honorary member of the Crow Nation. The Illinois senator talked about Native American issues during his stop at Apsaalooke Veterans Park. He also talked about the crisis facing American Indian health care and broken promises.

During his campaign, Obama also stopped in Butte twice. Senators Obama and Hillary Clinton were the keynote speeches at the Metcalf-Mansfield dinner in Butte. He returned later that year with his family, choosing Butte as the place to celebrate the Fourth of July. Even though the Secret Service wouldn't allow the candidate to walk the parade route, Obama strolled the first two blocks of the route shaking hands and flashing a smile.

Obama also made a stop in Missoula last year, speaking to a packed room at the Adams Center, touching on topics ranging from education to foreign policy to the need for a new kind of politics in Washington.

This is the first time a sitting U.S. President will visit Bozeman, according to Pioneer Museum director John Russell and Montana State University special collections librarian Kim Scott.

To the best of their knowledge, there has been no sitting president to visit Bozeman, Russell and Scott said. However, several presidents have visited surrounding areas, including both Roosevelt presidents who visited the West Yellowstone area.

While no sitting president has visited Bozeman, Butte has been a frequent stop for presidents in the past. Presidents William Taft, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson all made the trip to the Mining City. In 1980, former President Gerald Ford spoke to a crowd of more than 1,000 at the Butte Civic Center. In the spring of 2008 former President Bill Clinton stopped in Butte to campaign on behalf of his wife, Hillary.