The Scotts Bluff Experience and A Persistent Preservation Ethic Both Captain James Cook and son Harold Cook, although not historians by formal training were inherently historically-minded. They believed that significant cultural sites and objects should be preserved and made available to the public. It was this fundamental trait which prompted the visiting Sioux to give their precious heirlooms to the Cooks because they knew this special white family appreciated their heritage and wished equally as much to preserve it. This deep sense of social and cultural responsibility resulted in the transformation of several rooms of the Cook ranchhouse into exhibit areas with names like the "Bone Room" and the "Indian Room." Established on an informal basis, it became known as the "Cook Museum of Natural History" with Captain Cook serving as a gracious host to a continuous stream of visitors. The surrounding grove of trees became a favorite spot of picnickers and campers; heavy visitation came in the summertime and weekends and it was not unusual for a hundred automobiles to be parked amidst the trees at one time. While all the members of the family took turns serving as interpretive guides with multiple groups squeezing from room to room, Captain Cook was the one most in demand to recollect his unique experiences. The Captain never complained about the long hours spent picking up litter in the area or the many times he suffered laryngitis. He even had to be coaxed into charging a small admission fee following the onset of the Depression to help make ends meet, although he declined to collect if people did not have the money. [31] Captain Cook never stopped dreaming about a monument to preserve the scientific and historical wonders at Agate. Hoping to record as much of his own personal experiences as possible much of his time in his later years was devoted to writing about life in the Old West. James H. Cook's greatest work, Fifty Years on the Old Frontier, foreshadows such a monument on his own ranch:
Together with earlier idea to duplicate Old Fort Laramie, the monument concept took preliminary form when architectural plans were prepared for a permanent museum building to house the famous Cook Collections. Because funding never became available, the plans remained tucked carefully away. [33] The 1916 National Park Service Organic Act, and the establishment of Dinosaur (1915) and Scotts Bluff (1919) National Monuments, inspired and excited the Cooks. During a three-day visit to examine the feasibility of a tour road at Scotts Bluff in June 1931, National Park Service Director Horace M. Albright stopped at the Agate Springs Ranch. Director Albright and other Park Service officials met the Cook family, toured the ranch and fossil quarries, and "expressed great interest in the region and things they saw here" [34] In early July 1932, Chief Red Cloud's family made their annual visit to the Agate Springs Ranch, an event which always attracted much attention. A twenty-five to fifty cent museum fee was charged for a guide and lecture service and fifty cents per vehicle was assessed for parking and use of the picnic grounds. [35] Following the Sioux celebration, Harold Cook wrote to Horace Albright to reissue an invitation to stay overnight at Agate during Albright's September visit to Scotts Bluff National Monument. [36] Albright returned to western Nebraska to announce the beginning of development at Scotts Bluff. Custodian Albert N. Mathers consulted with Harold Cook over architectural drawings for a permanent administration building at the monument. Cook, seeing an opportunity for a regional scientific and cultural center based on the School of American Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico, suggested the plans be redrawn to include a museum. In December 1933, Harold Cook was asked to direct a Civil Works Administration (CWA: 1933-34) team in historical and scientific research for the new Scotts Bluff museum. The CWA group was sponsored by the National Park Service Field Division of Education in Berkeley, California. Because he could no longer afford to pay his own expenses out of the ranch operating funds, Cook was appointed a temporary ranger in May 1934, and placed on the National Park Service payroll. Custodian Mathers resigned on June 15, 1934, to run for the U.S. House of Representatives, leaving Harold Cook acting superintendent. [37] On December 11, 1934, a telegram arrived from Acting National Park Service Director A. E. Demaray:
In a December 14 reply telegram, Cook accepted the position. [39] Cook continued working with the Berkeley planning team, encouraging the prehistoric theme for the museum, exemplified by the Agate Springs Fossil Quarries, as well as the historic period. Ironically, the Deputy Secretary of Public Works in the 1920s, a personal friend to whom Cook constantly wrote encouraging better roads, was now Governor of Nebraska. On February 4, 1935, Custodian Cook wrote Democratic Governor Roy Cochran about what he claimed was the Park Service's idea for a "National Parkway" in the area.* With the completion of the Scotts Bluff museum, visitors would naturally proceed to the Agate Springs Fossil Quarries and then to the "Borglum Monument" [Mount Rushmore National Memorial; authorized March 3, 1925] as well as other Black Hills sites. Cook argued the visitor influx would require substantial improvements for Nebraska Highway 29, the principal north-south route in western Nebraska. [40]
Captain James H. Cook was also involved at Scotts Bluff. The Park Service Berkeley division asked his assistance in organizing museum exhibits, donating Old West objects, providing information, and locating original trails and ranches on maps. [41] Working with Nebraska Congressman Terry Carpenter, Custodian Cook was successful in resuming construction at the monument which halted in April 1934 because of lack of funding. In April 1935, a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp opened at Scotts Bluff under the Emergency Conservation Work (ECW) program. Construction on the museum/administration building continued, and Cook worked closely with the young Park Service architect, Howard W. Baker. In May, Harold Cook was appointed Project Superintendent of CCC Camp 762 with a boost in salary. The same month Cook invited Acting Director Demaray, scheduled to arrive at Scotts Bluff on July 4 during a tour of fourteen National Parks and twelve National Monuments, to visit the Agate Springs Ranch, meet his father, and see the "world famous Agate Fossil Quarries." [42] Demaray replied, on May 24, that he looked forward to visiting the ranch. [43] Eleven days later, on June 4, 1935, a telegram arrived at the Agate Post Office:
Although upset and shaken, the action did not catch Cook by surprise. After his appointment as CCC project superintendent and Scotts Bluff custodian, Cook was visited by Scotts Bluff County Democratic Party Chairman Ray W. Coleman who threatened Cook with loss of his job if he did not allow Coleman to select all camp appointees and laborers according to party affiliation. Coleman said he was Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes' "personal fingertip" and if Cook did not do as he was told, he would see that Congressman Harry Coffee got Secretary Ickes to fire Cook. He wanted C. B. Turner, a loyal Democrat and former employee of Congressman Coffee with no engineering or scientific training, to be appointed foreman of the CCC camp. Cook stood firm, citing the President's and Secretary's instructions that appointments be nonpartisan and based on qualifications and need. [45] In a June 6, 1935, letter to Acting Director Demaray, Cook explained the situation and declared:
Harold Cook refused to relinquish his office until an official investigation was conducted. His cause was joined by former Congressman Carpenter who challenged incumbent Congressman Coffee on a radio program to stop trying to get Cook fired at the national monument or he would do everything in his power to defeat Coffee in the next election. [47] Acting Director Demaray's July 4 visit to Scotts Bluff and Agate gave Harold Cook an opportunity to plead his case personally. From Gering, Demaray telegraphed Assistant Director Hillory A. Tolson in the Washington Office asking for an update on Cook's status. He related that Cook was nonpartisan and the most qualified man to be project superintendent. In discussions with locals, Demaray ascertained that C. B. Turner was "utterly incompetent" and of questionable standing in the community. [48] Howard Baker and his wife accompanied Arthur Demaray and his wife on a summer 1935 trek to the western parks. Baker, headquartered in San Francisco and working out of a field office in Rocky Mountain National Park from 1930 to 1935, recalled the visit at Agate Springs Ranch. The Demarays and Bakers had lunch with the Cooks and then journeyed to the fossil quarries for a personal tour. According to Baker, Demaray was quite impressed with the area. The Cooks discussed the possibility of the quarries being a unit of the National Park System. While no action took place during the Depression in this regard, it marked the first time serious discussions for a national monument to preserve the fossil beds were held with National Park Service officials. A monument would not be realized for another thirty years. [49] Despite strong support from the Directorship of the National Park Service, Secretary Harold Ickes, enraged by Cook's defiance of his orders, refused to review the incident. In a July 15 telegram, Ickes stated:
In reply, Cook asserted that office records were always open to Charles Randels, but files and equipment were Cook's own personal property: "In my enthusiasm for the splendid National Park Service work here I have put in over one year and over fifteen hundred dollars of my own money above any pay received in furthering this work and the locating of this camp...." [51] Ickes retaliated for the continued insubordination by releasing a scathing statement to the press. Harold Cook resigned himself to defeat, but his devoted second wife, Margaret Crozier Cook, appealed to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. In a September 26 letter, Mrs. Cook explained the situation and introduced a new twist which her husband had refused to use in his own defense. Congressman Coffee aspired to purchase the Agate Springs Ranch by ruining her husband. Apparently, the local Congressman was President of the Coffee Cattle Company. By crippling the Cooks' finances, he was in a good position to undermine and buy the ranchand the priceless Agate Springs Fossil Quarriesat a foreclosure sale. Mrs. Cook told Mrs. Roosevelt that the congressman was "trying by every means to force a foreclosure sale of Agate ranch, so that they may bid it in. In fact they have bid it in, and only the fact that fair minded officials are handling the case has prevented them from forcing Captain Cook out of his home which he built and has occupied since 1891." She added:
Although it is unknown if Eleanor Roosevelt actually read or acted on the emotional appeal, the point became moot when Merrill J. Mattes entered on duty as the first permanent Service employee at Scotts Bluff on October 1, 1935. The appointment of Merrill J. Mattes resulted in a Departmental and Service resolve to squelch the political bickering in western Nebraska and to lend stability to the important development project at Scotts Bluff National Monument. Mattes served as Junior Historian from 1935 to 1937, and as Custodian from 1938 to 1946. Officially, Mattes always held the title of Custodian, but until he gained administrative experience, for the first two years Engineer Charles Randels was "Acting Custodian." Both Randels and Mattes were superiors of CCC Project Superintendent C. B. Turner, whose political appointment terminated with the closure of the CCC camp on May 31, 1938.* In effect, Harold Cook had scored a victory. With a permanent Service employee onsite to act as a watchdog, Turner did not have a free hand at Scotts Bluff. [53]
Harold Cook returned to operating the ranch and to the world of paleontology, as well as serving as geological consultant to several oil companies exploring for petroleum in Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska. [54] His contacts with the National Park Service continued. Cook held no grudge or bitterness against the National Park Service, an organization whose mission he deeply admired, but recognized he was the victim of local and Departmental politics. As early as April 1938, Earl A. Trager, Chief, Naturalist Division, Washington Office, requested Cook's assistance with geological and paleontological exhibits at Scotts Bluff. Occupied by other business interests, time did not permit Cook to participate in organizing the museum exhibits at Scotts Bluff. [55] Harold Cook granted the National Park Service permission to obtain specimens from the Agate Springs Fossil Quarries to display at Scotts Bluff. Two prime specimens, a slab of Diceratherium (two-horned rhinoceros) and Stenomylus (gazelle-like camel), were obtained by CCC paleontologist/archeologist foreman Paul C. McGrew. [56] McGrew was Harold Cook's son-in-law, having married Winifred Cook in November 1934. The Cooks became good friends with Scotts Bluff Custodian Mattes and his family. It was Mattes who laid the groundwork for Cook's donation of an Army Dump Cart to Fort Laramie National Monument. The cart, and an old iron lock from a guardhouse which Cook also donated, were originally from Fort Laramie. The preservationist was delighted to contribute the items for the Service's restoration of the old fort. [57] Shortly before his second book, Longhorn Cowboy, was finished, Captain James H. Cook died on January 27, 1942, at age eighty-four. [58] Operation of the Agate Springs Ranch went on as before and Harold Cook continued to be occupied with his scientific work. With advancing age, his dream of preserving the Agate Springs Fossil Quarries and memorializing his beloved father intensified. In 1955, rumors that Cook did not actually own the quarriesafter he sold the surface grazing rights to other relativesprompted him to publish and distribute a "Statement on the Ownership and Control of Agate Springs Fossil Quarries." This was done on April 30, 1955. Retracing the history of the homestead claim and the provisions for quarrying, he stated:
The statement was distributed to each visitor to the quarries. Thousands kept coming every year to see the fossils and the Agate Springs Ranch's "Cook Museum of Natural History" where Captain Cook's collections were displayed. The Cooks realized they could not accommodate everyone or go on operating the area forever. The couple traveled frequently, leaving their unincorporated "town" of Agate in the care of ranchhands or other relatives. One such time was several weeks in the summer of 1960, when Harold Cook presented a paper before an international paleontological conference in Copenhagen. Awaiting them upon their return was a letter stating a National Park Service official wished to visit and evaluate the area's eligibility for listing on a national inventory of scientific monuments. [60] The letter was an answer to Harold and Margaret Cooks' prayers.
http://www.nps.gov/agfo/adhi/adhi1d.htm Last Updated: 12-Feb-2003 |