Bio
James H. Cook was a Michigan native who ventured west to Texas in the 1870s, becoming a cowboy during a period when American cowboys were learning their skills from Mexican vaqueros. He participated in numerous cattle drives, capturing wild cattle in the Llano Estacado region and selling them in Kansas and Colorado. Cook’s career expanded when he served as a scout for the U.S. military during the Apache uprising and later worked as a market hunter in Colorado and Wyoming, supplying game to railroads and hotels. He eventually transitioned into guiding hunting expeditions for wealthy clients.
Cook’s interests led him to befriend renowned geologists and paleontologists such as Ferdinand Hayden and Edward Cope. After acquiring the Old 04 Ranch in Nebraska through marriage, he established the Agate Springs Ranch, where he invited paleontologists to study the rich fossil deposits on his land. His son, Harold J. Cook, would later become a prominent paleontologist.
Cook’s memoir, Fifty Years on the Old Frontier (1923), provides insight into his long friendship with Oglala Lakota Sioux chief Red Cloud, with whom he had a 35-year bond. Red Cloud and his tribe frequently visited Cook at the ranch, and the Sioux even attempted, unsuccessfully, to have him appointed as their Indian Agent. In 1965, the National Park Service acquired land from the Cook family, establishing the Agate Fossil Beds National Monument.
