Agate Fossil Bed National Monument

Agate Fossil Beds and its surrounding prairie are preserved in a 3,000 acre national monument. Once part of “Captain” James H. Cook’s Agate Springs Ranch, the nearby beds are an important source for 19.2 million year-old Miocene epoch mammal fossils. Cook’s ranch also became a gathering place for Chief Red Cloud and other Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Indian people.

Notice the sign - "Caution Rattlesnakes"

This is the cabin that the Cook family lived in surrounded by plains grasses and mountain ridges out in the middle of nowhere.

Joe heading for our picnic lunch.  And yes, that is another "Caution Rattlesnakes" sign.

The Agate Fossil Bed National Monument is known for two reasons:  the dinosaur discoveries and the Indian artifacts collection.

During this time of scientific exploration other gatherings took place at the Agate Springs Ranch. Red Cloud of the Oglala Lakota Sioux and many of his friends and family members would make the 150 mile trip by wagon from the Pine Ridge Reservation. While staying at the ranch they hunted, worked for James Cook, and butchered beef they were given, tanned hides, told stories and danced. Many residents of the surrounding area remember going to the ranch to watch and participate in the dancing and singing. From the gifts given through a friendship forged between the cultures this extraordinary collection of American Indian artifacts became known as the James H. Cook Collection. Special items such as Red Cloud's shirt and three generations of pipebags as well as items of daily use are included in the collection.