Agate Fossil Beds Administrative History

CHAPTER 1:
THE COOKS OF AGATE SPRINGS RANCH (continued)

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:

The frontiersmen of the type who used the flintlock and percussion-cap rifles, carrying bullets that ran from sixty to one hundred and twenty to the pound, and whose headgear and clothing were made almost entirely of the skins of animals, have practically all journeyed ahead with the innumerable caravan. The ox team and stage drivers, also the cowboys of yesterday, are following closely after them. Were not the early pioneers of scientific research in the West also worthy of suitable monuments erected in their honor somewhere in or about the center of their activities? If so, is not the erection of such monuments a thing worth our doing at this time? Have we no people of wealth and culture who would take pleasure in doing something of this sort—something which would not only be a credit to the donors, but which would also give pleasure and comfort to the generations to come as the centuries pass? [32]

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:

Due to lack of funds your appointment park ranger was terminated close November thirtieth stop. Will you accept appointment nominal rate twelve dollars per annum as temporary custodian Scotts Bluff until funds are available for new seasonal ranger appointment next spring stop. Regret no funds available [to] cover your travel [to] Berkeley. . . . [38]

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]

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*The impetus for this idea actually originated from citizens in the Bridgeport and Scottsbluff communities. They proposed a "National Parks Area" extending from Bridgeport to Old Fort Laramie, Wyoming, including all historical areas in the vicinity with Scotts Bluff National Monument at the core. In January 1935, Nebraska Governor Robert L. Cochran appointed the "Old Oregon and Mormon Trails, National Parks Area Commission" comprised of thirteen prominent Nebraskans to study the matter. Wyoming was asked for its cooperation. A map of the proposed "Oregon Trail National Park" detailed all the landmarks and recreational facilities of the region and included Agate, marked by a dinosaur with the caption "Fossil Beds, Capt. Cook's Ranch."

In 1937, the Commission's name was shortened to "Nebraska Old Oregon and Mormon Trails Commission." The Nebraska and a similar Wyoming commission worked closely with National Park Service officials and were successful only in the public acquisition of Old Fort Laramie. On July 16, 1938, Fort Laramie National Monument entered the National Park System. See Governor Robert L. Cochran to Leslie Miller, Governor of Wyoming, letter, January 26, 1935; Miller to Cochran, letter, January 30, 1935; map of the "Proposed Oregon Trail National Park"; Cochran to H.J. Dollinger, Chairman, Nebraska Old Oregon and Mormon Trails Commission, letter, June 7, 1937; and Dollinger to Cochran, letter, May 29, 1937, box 46 (1937) Series Two, Records and Correspondence of State Agencies and Departments 1935-1940, folder—Old Oregon and Mormon Trails, National Parks Area, Papers of Governor Robert Leroy Cochran, State of Nebraska Archives, Nebraska State Historical Society.

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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:

Your services will be terminated close June fifteenth by director [sic] of Secretary for administrative reasons. Formal notification to follow.

Demaray [44]

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:

Let me assure you that I do not blame the Park Service or any of its officials for the action taken by the Secretary in ordering my services terminated June 15th, as per your wire of June 4th.

In view of the fact that I have donated my time and training and experience and all expenses including more than 20,000 miles which I have driven my own car, at my own expense, on the business and related affairs pertinent to and of importance to the projects outlined here, for the National Park Service; have furnished even office equipment and a background of personal prestige and wide acquaintance that is certainly of value to the Park Service and that branch of the Federal Government, in trying to put this project on its feet in an intelligent, active manner that will mean an important step in the educational and practical development of the usefulness of the NPS in certain directions, I naturally deeply resent the utterly unjust, unfair and unwarranted action of summary dismissal under such circumstances, and of course, cannot and will not, take it lying down, without bringing the facts into the open.

I sent a personal wire to Secretary Ickes, demanding a fair hearing of facts before accepting this order for my dismissal. As he has a reputation of being an honest, fair-minded man, I am confident that a review of the facts regarding this case will be enlightening to him. . . . [46]

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:

I have appointed C. B. Turner as Superintendent of the ECW Camp at Scottsbluff [sic] National Monument pending his entry on duty. You are directed to turn over all records and property immediately to associate engineer Charles Randels. You have never held a civil service position in this department. I have satisfied myself as to the advisability of appointment Mr. Turner and this does not reflect on you. You occupied a non civil service position which you secured without competition and therefore your appointment carried no rights. In tenure of office you were separated from the Service at the close of June Fifteenth and your action in continuing in office and refusing to turn over records and property of the Government not only makes you guilty of insubordination but cause me to believe that I made no mistake in separating you from the Service. [50]

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 ranch—and the priceless Agate Springs Fossil Quarries—at 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:

This was, as you can see, a labor of love. Mr. Cook put the whole force of his training, his wonderful enthusiasm, and his vital energy and background, into this work. He loved it, and was absorbed by it. He worked in absolute accord with the Park Service and they were and are, still, back of him, in everything he has done at Scotts Bluff. [52]

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]

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*The lesson of the Cook affair was apparently lost on C.B. Turner. During Mattes' first year at Scotts Bluff, Turner unsuccessfully pressured Mattes to make a contribution to the Democratic Party.

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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 quarries—after he sold the surface grazing rights to other relatives—prompted 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:

It will be noted that I have at all times, therefore, owned and controlled the exclusive right to collect or to grant permission to collect fossils on these lands. This was done, primarily, to assure proper control of these fossil deposits at all times, regardless of any possible change of ownership, to protect them and all that they represent for Science and scientific research; and to assure, permanently, their protection from possible vandalism by untrained "specimen hunters" who do not know or understand the importance of such deposits, scientifically, and who might destroy important fossils or other scientific data by lack of knowledge or care, so long as they secured "specimens."

It is my intention now, as it always has been in the past, to grant permission for any reasonable collecting from these famous deposits, when it is done by properly trained people who know how to collect and preserve specimens and who are collecting for scientific and educational purposes. It is my wish and desire to encourage this kind of collecting by trained, responsible people, and I am always glad to consider the application of responsible people or institutions for permission to work in these deposits. Likewise, I am glad to have educational or scientific institutions bring students and seriously interested people to see these deposits. I will always be glad to grant permission for that purpose, with the provision that anyone going to these quarries will agree to do his part to keep the place free from trash and rubbish, to help prevent grass fires, to prevent vandalism and damage to these deposits, and who will do his part in leaving gates closed when they are found closed while crossing these lands, and in not disturbing livestock, unnecessarily. Parties wishing to visit the Agate Springs Fossil Quarries should write, or see me in advance, when practical to do so. [59]

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.