James Cook was born in 1857 in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  Just two years later, when his mother died, his father, a Great Lakes captain, placed him and his brother John into separate foster homes. 

 

Ten years later, at age 11 or 12, James left the foster home and went west to Leavenworth, Kansas where he bought a horse for $15.00 and a used saddle for $5.00.  He already owned a gun and had established himself as a good shot.  He worked for both the cattlemen who gathered Longhorn cattle out of the brush and also for the railroad as a brakeman.  In 1874 he participated in his first cattle drive north.  He visited Fort Robinson and the Red Cloud Agency in what is now northwest Nebraska, and met Professor O. C. Marsh, an early day paleontologist.  He also met, for the first time, Red Cloud, at the Red Cloud Agency, a Lakota Sioux with whom he would enjoy a long friendship.

 

In 1876 he traveled to Montana to locate good trapping grounds.  He made his last trail drive from Texas to Crow Creek, Colorado and from 1878 – 1882 he guided a number of parties on big game hunts in Wyoming.  Again he met and visited with early day paleontologists, O. C. Marsh and E. D. Cope, visits which sparked his interest in fossils. In 1882, he traveled to New Mexico and became the manager of the WS Ranch.

 

James Cook first found the fossils in the Agate area when riding with his sweetheart Kate Graham whose father, E. B. Graham, owned the 04 Ranch in northwest Nebraska.  Kate and James married in 1886 and Cook returned to New Mexico.  In 1887 James and Kate bought the 04 Ranch from Kate’s father and renamed it Agate Springs Ranch for both the Moss Agate in the area and the natural springs of the Niobrara River.  They started their ranching business with race horses and cattle.  James planted numerous trees at Agate Springs Ranch, many of which are still alive today. These trees form an oasis in a land of treeless mixed grass prairie.  He also contacted early-day paleontologists who explored the ranch and found both the Daemonelix Burrows and the 19.2 million-year-old fossils in the Fossil Hills.

 

James and Kate Cook had two sons, Harold and John.  Harold, educated at the University of Nebraska, became interested in fossils and helped the paleontologists when they visited the area.  The younger son died at the age of 20 in the flu epidemic of 1918 while attending school in California.  James Cook’s brother, John, served as postmaster at Agate Post Office for many years.

 

During his ranching years James remain involved in a myriad of activities. He applied progressive ideas that he learned from the many farming and ranching publications to which he subscribed.  He was one of the first ranchers in the area to use irrigation to improve his hay crop.  His natural curiosity led him to maintain a lively interest in the area’s fossil discoveries.  As the Indians continued to visit the ranch, Cooks’ friendship with Red Cloud grew.  The Indians offered the Cooks gifts, either items made especially for the Cook family or ones of importance to the Lakota Sioux. James Cook preserved these items in the ranch house, hanging some on the walls of his den. People often visited the ranch to view both these Indian artifacts and the fossils. James Cook’s desire that these artifacts remain in the area led to the eventual creation of Agate Fossil Beds National Monument.

 

James Cook died in 1942 at the age of 85 after a long and interesting life.  He wrote a book on his life titled Fifty Years on the Old Frontier which is available in the book store at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument.