Across the fence

In the year 1878 Dr. Elisha Barker Graham along with his wife, Mary Hutchison Graham and daughter Kate, relocated his medical practice from New York to Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory. Dr. Graham's health dictated a move to a geographical region that was higher and drier than the sea level humidity of the east coast. At the time, Cheyenne was already the capital of the region though Wyoming would not become a state until twelve years later on the 10th of July in 1890.

Dr. Graham opened his practice soon after his arrival providing medical services to many of Cheyenne's notable citizens. Among the good doctor's patients were Cheyenne Mayor Hugh Orr and John "Portugee" Phillips. Phillips was famous for his two hundred and thirty-six mile ride from Fort Phil Kearny to Fort Laramie, arriving at Fort Laramie on Christmas night with news of the Fetterman Massacre that had occurred on December 21, 1866. Hugh Orr was stationed at Fort Phil Kearny and was one of the soldiers who remained to defend the fort until reinforcements arrived.

Cheyenne was already a thriving community and a bustling center of commerce, with the Union Pacific Railroad owning much of the land where rich coal deposits were being mined. The prospect of wealth was also evident in the growing cattle industry as Texas cowboys trailed herds north, while east coast as well as foreign investors poured money into open range cattle empires. And so it was that Dr. Graham became interested in a ranch of his own.

John Phillips and Hugh Orr knew of a place about one hundred miles northeast, on the Niobrara River in Nebraska, that they thought suitable for establishing a ranch. With the first signs of spring, in 1879, the three men rode out of Cheyenne, into the Nebraska Panhandle and laid out the site for the headquarters of what would be the 04 Ranch. It is believed that it was named the 04 because of its proximity to the 104th meridian. The following summer, Dr. Graham stocked his range with longhorn cattle that had come up the Western Trail from Texas. At that time Dr. Graham's sole claim to the land was under so-called 'squatters rights' since the area had yet to be surveyed. With no legal boundaries, cattle on the 04 ranch could free range an area from the White River in the north to the north fork of the Platte in the south.

Dr. Graham hired one John D. "Charley" Russell as the first 04 Ranch foreman and under his management cowboys were hired, not just for cow work, but also to haul logs from Pine Ridge for buildings and firewood. One year later the ranch headquarters boasted two log houses, a barn, stables, various sheds and ample corrals. Later, under ownership of Dr. Graham's son-in-law, trees were planted along the barren banks of the Niobrara and soon provided windbreaks where blowing sand and trampled buffalo wallows once prevailed. Lush grasses sank their roots in the sandy soil and sprawling meadows stretched away from the stream. This was cow country and Dr. Graham was one of the first two cattlemen to ranch in Sioux County, Nebraska the other being Edgar Beecher Bronson whose 33 Ranch lay several miles to the east, also on the banks of the Niobrara near Whistle Creek.

Four years before Dr. Graham and his family arrived in Cheyenne, a seventeen-year-old Texas cowboy by the name of James Cook joined a trail drive from Texas to Wyoming and Nebraska in 1874. During his brief stay in Nebraska he visited the military post at Fort Robinson and the Red Cloud Agency. At Fort Robinson he met Professor O.C. Marsh of Yale University, the United States' first university paleontologist. Professor Marsh was the man who had earlier discovered and identified the first fossilized remains of the three-toed horse on the North American continent, at a Union Pacific whistle stop called Antelope, later renamed Kimball, Nebraska. At the Red Cloud agency young Cook also met Chief Red Cloud of the Oglala Lakota and began a friendship that would last more than three decades. Both men, Professor Marsh and Red Cloud, would play a major role in James Cook's future.

James H. Cook was born in 1857 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. His father, Captain Henry Cook was a ships captain on the Great Lakes of northeastern America and claimed kinship with Captain James Cook, the discoverer of the Hawaiian Islands. When James was but two years old his mother died and his father was compelled to place young James and his brother John in separate foster homes. At the age of 12 James ran away from his foster home and with hopes of following in his father's footsteps, took a job as a boatman on the Great Lakes but soon found that the life of a seaman was not for him. James left the Great Lakes region and headed southwest to Leavenworth, Kansas where he bought a horse and saddle for $20.00, looked toward the far southwest, and made tracks for Texas.

Once in Texas, James made his way as a working cowboy for various cattle outfits, making frequent trips north to Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana. James Cook's last trail drive to Cheyenne was in 1878 and quite possibly provided the longhorn cattle that were stocked on the 04 Ranch. For some reason, after that last drive James decided to make a living as a hunter and guide. A year later he had established himself as a reputable outfitter and an accomplished market hunter. Based in Cheyenne he outfitted and guided hunts for wealthy English sportsmen seeking adventure in the rugged and wild Rocky, Bighorn, and Laramie mountains. During this time he also made the acquaintance of Dr. Graham, his wife Mary and their 10-year-old daughter Kate.

Returning to the southwest, from 1882 to 1887 James managed the WS ranch in New Mexico, making infrequent trips north to Cheyenne. On one of those trips James must have realized that Kate Graham was no longer a little girl and his proposal of marriage was readily accepted. James and Kate were married in 1886, she was eighteen, James was twenty-nine.

After their wedding, James took his new bride back to New Mexico and the WS ranch. At that time Apache raids on white settlers continued to plague the area and for the safety of his family, James, Kate and their six-weeks old son Harold James, returned to Nebraska. James and Kate purchased the 04 Ranch from Kate's father and renamed it the Agate Springs Ranch, so named for the moss agate found along the valley and the numerous springs that fed the Niobrara. James Cook was probably the first rancher in the Nebraska panhandle to increase hay production by use of an irrigation system diverting water from the Niobrara.

A short while before they were married, Kate and James had discovered fossil bones along a hillside on the ranch. Through his acquaintance with Professor Marsh, James knew of the importance of fossil remains in scientific study. In 1904 the first fossils were quarried from the ranch by Professor Peterson of the Carnegie Museum. Soon after the Nebraska State Museum joined in the excavating along with scientists from the American Museum of Natural History in New York and others from numerous universities in the east as well as several European universities and museums.

Perhaps even more important than the origins of ranching by the 04 and Lower 33 ranches in Sioux County and the discovery of the fossil remains of mammals found nowhere else on this continent, was the genuine and lasting friendship that grew between the Cooks, Chief Red Cloud and their families and friends.

From the friendship that had begun when James had met Chief Red Cloud in 1874, during the 1890's, after the Wounded Knee massacre, Chief Red Cloud and his followers made annual trips from their reservation to the Cook ranch. Coming horseback, on foot and in supply-laden wagons the Oglala Lakota band would make camp near the ranch house and spend several days celebrating their friendship with feasting, dancing exchanging gifts and sharing stories of their lives.

Through this open and selfless sharing of cultures James Cook accumulated a collection of artifacts given freely by the Lakota with the only stipulation that they be shared with others and their stories told. I think it is significant that these artifacts are gifts, not items picked up off a battlefield as a memento of conflict. These many historic items are on display at the Agate Fossil Beds National Monument in Sioux County, Nebraska.

The Agate Springs Ranch continues to be a working cattle ranch and is still owned by descendants of James Cook.

Volume 1 of "101 Yesterdays", containing 50 selected columns from the past six years is now available. To order contact Tim at [email protected] or send $17.00 plus $3.00 postage and handling to M. Timothy Nolting P.O. Box 68 Bushnell, NE 69128