Saturday, July 30, 2011

The Best Laid Plans Often Go Astray, Awry, Away or Off Course..

I had great intentions for today.  I WaS going to clean my house and car and plan and organize food for the coming week.  You obviously have not seen my bedroom and the slow disintegration of order in the rest of the house and there will be no pictures of it either to accompany this posting.  If you had seen the house and you are a female, you WOulD understand!  After all, we didn't go on a daycation and I should have had time.  I even got a head start on the cleaning last night.  I did some rug shampooing on an ever increasing large section of carpet, where someone shuffles back and forth in his shoes when I'm not home to remind him to take his shoes off for the 539,913, 604, 233rd time and has managed to start changing the color of the carpet from light to a sight.  I washed, dryed, folded and put away three loads of clothes.  Joe did clothes last night and I'm still trying to correctly find and match socks, find missing clothes and that was on the agenda for today also.

I started the day by doing some vacuuming and a little straightening up before taking my car for an oil change.  Can you believe the price of just changing your oil?! Almost $33.00 and that's with a coupon, no new oil or air filter, an alleged cracked serpentine chain or belt, a blown on rear light/blinker and this could all be fixed for the amazing price of $220.00!!!  I don't think so.  Not today.  I'll take the car to my handy-dandy I can trust him mechanic sometime next week.  Then I picked up some items at the West side Walmart, since it was close by, stopped by to visit Marla who'd just gotten back into town and has a terrible cough.  While there I got a phone call from Joe telling me that the man with "I've Fallen And I Can't Get Up" was at the house and I was needed ASAP.  When I arrived home, I found out that Mr. IFAICGU had been in my bedroom, yes the bedroom that NOboDY should ever have seen with mortal eyes!!!  They were looking for a phone jack and plug for the new machine.  I was so furious, upset, and just couldn't believe he'd seen the room from bedroom hell!  And, there was my underwear lying right by the door.  Don't tell me he didn't see that along with my hanging bras!  The man probably left our home and drove straight to therapy!  But hey, Joe now has an emergency lifeline beeper. 

By now it was almost 1:00 p.m. and becoming almost too late for lunch so I took my sweetie to lunch.  Then we had to stop by the Eastside Walmart for med refills and dog food BEForE taking Joe to get a haircut and beard trim.  A couple of times during the day, Joe had asked if we could go to the top of Casper Mountain.  I asked him why since we'd been up there a couple of months ago.  He said he wanted to go again and see the valley below before he lost anymore of his sight.  How could I refuse that, I ask you?  So, I wound up driving him ALL over Casper Mountain and all around the bottom of the mountain.  Then, and only then did I finally get to come home and collapsed on the couch for a few minutes.  By now it was after 7:00 p.m. way past normal dinner time so then it was on to fixing dinner.
This is where we pulled off so that Joe could take a look at 
Casper and the surrounding area on this beautiful clear day.
I have run out of speed and run out of energy.  WHAT HAPPENED TO MY DAY!!!  Can we start all over, PLEASE!?  I have virtually accomplished NOthing of what I wanted/needed to do.  The bedroom from hell looks just as bad, but I suppose when I enter its dark confines tonight, I won't be able to notice the lack of improvement. 

So, let's see, no meal planning done...check.  No found clothes and matching socks...check.  No clean sheets on the bed...check.  No washed bathroom rugs and cleaned bathroom...check.  No cleaned car...check.  No blogging....only thing one.  Hmmm, the results - one entirely, unplanned and completely unraveled day.  But, while up on the mountain I stopped the car one time, told Joe to "look".  He said "where?"  I said "turn your head and look out your window."   There was a doe standing so close to him that she could have given Joe a kiss.  (Unfortunately, no camera ready this time).  And, this was after seeing two little spotted fawns earlier on the other side of the road.  This was what made having all my best laid plans go totally crazy worthwhile.  It was seeing Joe's smiling face looking eyeball to eyeball with that doe.  The sheer pleasure it brought him was priceless.  It's a moment that will forever be ingrained in my mind even without a picture.  It was the experience of having all the car windows open and the sunroof open and pulling off the side of the road on the top of a dirt road and just taking in the view with Joe that was something I will always remember.

All-in-all it was a wonderful non-daycation day.  I did gets lots of things done even though I'm still sooooo far behind on what I wanted/needed to do.  Joe's tucked in bed after giving him his nightly meds and ready to watch some DVR shows that are several weeks old.  Don't know how long that'll last because ahhh, the bed is looking pretty good about now!  (In the dark, of course)!
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Note:  Never popped the popcorn and only made it through one show.
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From Robert Burns' poem To a Mouse, 1786. It tells of how he, while ploughing a field, upturned a mouse's nest. The resulting poem is an apology to the mouse:
But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane [you aren't alone]
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft a-gley, [often go awry]
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promised joy.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

60 Years Together

The Ministry of Angels by Jeffrey R. Holland

When Adam and Eve willingly stepped into mortality, they knew this telestial world would contain thorns and thistles and troubles of every kind. Perhaps their most challenging realization, however, was not the hardship and danger they would endure but the fact that they would now be distanced from God, separated from Him with whom they had walked and talked, who had given them face-to-face counsel. After this conscious choice, as the record of creation says, “they saw him not; for they were shut out from his presence.”1 Amidst all else that must have troubled them, surely this must have troubled them the most.

But God knew the challenges they would face, and He certainly knew how lonely and troubled they would sometimes feel. So He watched over His mortal family constantly, heard their prayers always, and sent prophets (and later apostles) to teach, counsel, and guide them. But in times of special need, He sent angels, divine messengers, to bless His children, reassure them that heaven was always very close and that His help was always very near. Indeed, shortly after Adam and Eve found themselves in the lone and dreary world, an angel appeared unto them,2 who taught them the meaning of their sacrifice and the atoning role of the promised Redeemer who was to come.

When the time for this Savior’s advent was at hand, an angel was sent to announce to Mary that she was to be the mother of the Son of God.3 Then a host of angels was commissioned to sing on the night the baby Jesus was born.4 Shortly thereafter an angel would announce to Joseph that the newborn baby was in danger and that this little family must flee to Egypt for safety.5 When it was safe to return, an angel conveyed that information to the family and the three returned to the land of their heritage.6
From the beginning down through the dispensations, God has used angels as His emissaries in conveying love and concern for His children. Time in this setting does not allow even a cursory examination of the scriptures or our own latter-day history, which are so filled with accounts of angels ministering to those on earth, but it is rich doctrine and rich history indeed.

Usually such beings are not seen. Sometimes they are. But seen or unseen they are always near. Sometimes their assignments are very grand and have significance for the whole world. Sometimes the messages are more private. Occasionally the angelic purpose is to warn. But most often it is to comfort, to provide some form of merciful attention, guidance in difficult times. When in Lehi’s dream he found himself in a frightening place, “a dark and dreary waste,” as he described it, he was met by an angel, “a man … dressed in a white robe; … he spake unto me,” Lehi said, “and bade me follow him.”7 Lehi did follow him to safety and ultimately to the path of salvation.

In the course of life all of us spend time in “dark and dreary” places, wildernesses, circumstances of sorrow or fear or discouragement. Our present day is filled with global distress over financial crises, energy problems, terrorist attacks, and natural calamities. These translate into individual and family concerns not only about homes in which to live and food available to eat but also about the ultimate safety and well-being of our children and the latter-day prophecies about our planet. More serious than these—and sometimes related to them—are matters of ethical, moral, and spiritual decay seen in populations large and small, at home and abroad. But I testify that angels are still sent to help us, even as they were sent to help Adam and Eve, to help the prophets, and indeed to help the Savior of the world Himself. Matthew records in his gospel that after Satan had tempted Christ in the wilderness “angels came and ministered unto him.”8 Even the Son of God, a God Himself, had need for heavenly comfort during His sojourn in mortality. And so such ministrations will be to the righteous until the end of time. As Mormon said to his son Moroni, who would one day be an angel:

“Has the day of miracles ceased?

“Or have angels ceased to appear unto the children of men? Or has he withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from them? Or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man upon the face thereof to be saved?

“Behold I say unto you, Nay; for … it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men. …
“For behold, they are subject unto [Christ], to minister according to the word of his command, showing themselves unto them of strong faith and a firm mind in every form of godliness.”9

I ask everyone within the sound of my voice to take heart, be filled with faith, and remember the Lord has said He “would fight [our] battles, [our] children’s battles, and [the battles of our] children’s children.”10 And what do we do to merit such a defense? We are to “search diligently, pray always, and be believing[. Then] all things shall work together for [our] good, if [we] walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith [we] have covenanted.”11 The latter days are not a time to fear and tremble. They are a time to be believing and remember our covenants.

I have spoken here of heavenly help, of angels dispatched to bless us in time of need. But when we speak of those who are instruments in the hand of God, we are reminded that not all angels are from the other side of the veil. Some of them we walk with and talk with—here, now, every day. Some of them reside in our own neighborhoods. Some of them gave birth to us, and in my case, one of them consented to marry me. Indeed heaven never seems closer than when we see the love of God manifested in the kindness and devotion of people so good and so pure that angelic is the only word that comes to mind. Elder James Dunn, from this pulpit just moments ago, used that word in his invocation to describe this Primary choir—and why not? With the spirit, faces, and voices of those children in our mind and before our eyes, may I share with you an account by my friend and BYU colleague, the late Clyn D. Barrus. I do so with the permission of his wife, Marilyn, and their family.

Referring to his childhood on a large Idaho farm, Brother Barrus spoke of his nightly assignment to round up the cows at milking time. Because the cows pastured in a field bordered by the occasionally treacherous Teton River, the strict rule in the Barrus household was that during the spring flood season the children were never to go after any cows who ventured across the river. They were always to return home and seek mature help.

One Saturday just after his seventh birthday, Brother Barrus’s parents promised the family a night at the movies if the chores were done on time. But when young Clyn arrived at the pasture, the cows he sought had crossed the river, even though it was running at high flood stage. Knowing his rare night at the movies was in jeopardy, he decided to go after the cows himself, even though he had been warned many times never to do so.

As the seven-year-old urged his old horse, Banner, down into the cold, swift stream, the horse’s head barely cleared the water. An adult sitting on the horse would have been safe, but at Brother Barrus’s tender age, the current completely covered him except when the horse lunged forward several times, bringing Clyn’s head above water just enough to gasp for air.

Here I turn to Brother Barrus’s own words:
“When Banner finally climbed the other bank, I realized that my life had been in grave danger and that I had done a terrible thing—I had knowingly disobeyed my father. I felt that I could redeem myself only by bringing the cows home safely. Maybe then my father would forgive me. But it was already dusk, and I didn’t know for sure where I was. Despair overwhelmed me. I was wet and cold, lost and afraid.

“I climbed down from old Banner, fell to the ground by his feet, and began to cry. Between thick sobs, I tried to offer a prayer, repeating over and over to my Father in Heaven, ‘I’m sorry. Forgive me! I’m sorry. Forgive me!’

“I prayed for a long time. When I finally looked up, I saw through my tears a figure dressed in white walking toward me. In the dark, I felt certain it must be an angel sent in answer to my prayers. I did not move or make a sound as the figure approached, so overwhelmed was I by what I saw. Would the Lord really send an angel to me, who had been so disobedient?

“Then a familiar voice said, ‘Son, I’ve been looking for you.’ In the darkness I recognized the voice of my father and ran to his outstretched arms. He held me tightly, then said gently, ‘I was worried. I’m glad I found you.’

“I tried to tell him how sorry I was, but only disjointed words came out of my trembling lips—‘Thank you … darkness … afraid … river … alone.’ Later that night I learned that when I had not returned from the pasture, my father had come looking for me. When neither I nor the cows were to be found, he knew I had crossed the river and was in danger. Because it was dark and time was of the essence, he removed his clothes down to his long white thermal underwear, tied his shoes around his neck, and swam a treacherous river to rescue a wayward son.”12

My beloved brothers and sisters, I testify of angels, both the heavenly and the mortal kind. In doing so I am testifying that God never leaves us alone, never leaves us unaided in the challenges that we face. “[N]or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man [or woman or child] upon the face thereof to be saved.”13 On occasions, global or personal, we may feel we are distanced from God, shut out from heaven, lost, alone in dark and dreary places. Often enough that distress can be of our own making, but even then the Father of us all is watching and assisting. And always there are those angels who come and go all around us, seen and unseen, known and unknown, mortal and immortal.

May we all believe more readily in, and have more gratitude for, the Lord’s promise as contained in one of President Monson’s favorite scriptures: “I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, … my Spirit shall be in your [heart], and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.”14 In the process of praying for those angels to attend us, may we all try to be a little more angelic ourselves—with a kind word, a strong arm, a declaration of faith and “the covenant wherewith [we] have covenanted.”15 Perhaps then we can be emissaries sent from God when someone, perhaps a Primary child, is crying, “Darkness … afraid … river … alone.” To this end I pray in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

You Just Never Know Until...

In a few hours it will be my birthday.  My 59th birthday.  I don't expect much from it mainly because I don't need or want anything.  I have all that I need and want really.  Oh, don't let me kid you - I'd love more money to do the things I'd like to do such as travel, hire a private trainer, someone to cook and clean for me - things like that.  But, in the real world, I have all that I want or need.

I've gone to the mailbox this week and every day has brought some new surprise there or the patio chair parked beside the front door has produced handmade goodies several times recently. 

I got an unexpected card the other day.  It read on the inside, "So glad to have a friend like you!  Happy Birthday".  And then written it said "You probably have no idea how much I admire you.  You are an incredible woman of strength and courage."

I don't know this woman very well other than she and her husband served a mission together, she is very sweet and so knowledgeable about the gospel and so nicely soft-spoken.  In other words, she is so totally the opposite of myself.  But, her words make me feel so wonderful in that she apparently sees in me what I feel I lack so many times.

Then another card arrived in today's mail.  Inside it read, "Thank you for all the kindnesses you showed me when you were my visiting teacher.  They helped me at a hard spot in my life.  Have a great birthday.  You are a super special lady.  I love your great sense of humor.  You are a fun person and great example of a follower of Christ."

Wow, once again the power of visiting teaching has shown me how much we can influence people even if we don't think we are.  I had no idea that this sweet woman felt this way about me, but I am so happy that apparently I have made a difference in her life.



And then finally tonight when I came home after working for almost 12 hours, there on my living room floor was a beautiful bag with presents and a handwritten card for me.  It read, "Dear Carol, Happy Birthday!!!  I just wanted to send my love and remind you how wonderful you are!  It has been such a blessing for us to know you and Joe.  A tender mercy...

Here's a little something for you to remind you 1st, of what an angel you are, and 2nd - that you always have angels watching out for you!  I just loved a part of this talk that reminded me of you because it was about angels.
I hope sometime when you ever get a moment or just need a pick-me up, you will read from this and be lifted. 
"God never leaves us alone," he says.  I know that's true.  Thanks for being the first person to reach out, love and be our angel this summer!  We love you guys!

The gift bag contained two angels and a beautiful talk by Jeffrey R. Holland about "The Ministry of Angels".  These gifts and the handwritten card are from a young couple who are here for only three months while the husband does some internship with the federal government.  I introduced myself to them their first Sunday, had them over for dinner and we've gone on daycation together, out to dinner and special lectures and I was made her visiting teacher. 
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I just know it's easy to reach out and love people - especially in our ward.  That's what they did for us when we first moved here and they've never stopped doing it since.  Our ward is filled with angels in all shapes and sizes.  So, many thanks to all the unknown angels from the Weaver family.  Thanks for the anonymous goodies, the priesthood blessings, the phone calls, the cards, the visits, the tears of comfort and joy, the wonderful home teachers, the fantastic visiting teachers and all the other countless and unnamed peoples, in and out of our ward family that have been blessings in my life, in Joe's life.

Life is good.  Life is great, most of the time.  Life and love is a present that I enjoy having every single day - not just on my birthday.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Diary Diddle - July 24

We got 4 letters from Dad today.  They were so good.

Diary Diddle - July 23

We went to grandmother's house this afternoon and visited for awhile.  On the way home we picked up bottles and got an ice cream cone in Nashville.  On the way home we saw a double rainbow and rode right in the middle of it once.

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Note:  Picking up bottles along side the road became a tradition while Dad was in Vietnam.  We always did it either coming or going to Grandmother's house and always stopped in Nashville for some ice cream.

Today In History...


July 24, 1969…The Apollo 11 astronauts splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean following their spaceflight that landed the first humans on Earth's moon.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

It's Our 7th Wedding Anniversary







Several years ago there was a movie that came out.  It was called "Shall We Dance?" and starred Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon as his wife.

One of the things that I loved about that movie, other than looking and drooling over Richard Gere, was a statement that was made in response by Susan Sarandon's character.  The character was asked about why people get married and her character says:

"Because we need a witness to our lives.  There's a billion people on the planet.  What does anyone life really mean?  In a marriage, you're promising to care about everything.  The good things.  The bad things.  The terrible things.  The mundane things.  All of it.  All the time.  Every day.  You're saying your life will not go unnoticed, because I will notice it.  Your life will not go unwitnessed, because I will be your witness."

Joe is the witness to my life.  He's my best friend, he's my best buddy, he's my confidant.  He's a loving man who taught me how to love again when my heart had been broken and he restored my faith that someone could love me just exactly the way I am.  So, on our anniversary, here's hoping for at least another wonderful seven years together.

Heading Home From Nebraska





What a beautiful way to enjoy the ride home.

Hat Creek Stagecoach Station


Ruts heading to the old stagecoach station


The Hat Creek Stage Station lies below a ridge of pine clad hills (or brakes) that separates the high plain called the Divide and the land at the foot of the hills known as the Hat Creek Valley. The station is on the old stage road which later became Highway 85.

In 1875 troops of soldiers were sent from Fort Laramie to establish an outpost on Hat Creek in western Nebraska. Confused, they set up a post on Sage Creek, Wyoming and named it Hat Creek. The troops were supposed to keep gold seekers and settlers out of the Black Hills Indian Territory.  This was the Indian's hunting grounds and game was plentiful. They resented anyone moving in and made raids on emigrants, stagecoaches, freight wagons and ranches.

The 1868 Indian treaty was ratified in 1876 - so now the hills were open to settlement and gold seekers.  Freight and stage roads were established from Cheyenne, Wyo. to Deadwood, S. D. Another route branched NE from Hat Creek to the Harding ranch on Indian Creek to Cheyenne River Ranch, Custer and Deadwood.

In 1876 a telegraph line followed the stage route from Fort Laramie to Deadwood, S. D. Telegraph stations were set up at stage stations. Hat Creek's office opened in Sept. 1876. It was later in the month before messages could be sent because Indians had torn down some of the line near Hat Creek.

Freighters first broke the trail from Cheyenne to Deadwood in 1875 and 76. In 1876 the Cheyenne-Deadwood stagecoach carried mail and passengers. Holdups were very commonplace and the breaks south of Hat Creek Station was a perfect place for bandits and outlaws to waylay the coach. Many famous people as well as outlaws came thru via stagecoach.

Hat Creek Ranch and Stage Stop on Sage Creek was built in the fall of 1876 by John Bowman and Joe Walters. The first building put up by J. W. Dear was burned by the Indians. The new building was built of logs and a tunnel ran from it to the creek. The station was open for business in 1877. Besides hotel accommodations, it had a post office, telegraph office, stock and hay, bakery, grocery, brewery and blacksmith shop. In 1879, Charles Hecht bought the station.

There was no military fort at Hat Creek. Only Calvary troops from 1875 to 1877 - according to records at Washington, D. C.



These look like old bunkhouses and/or where horses were stabled.

Outside Lusk, Wyoming

On our way to find an old stagecoach station way out in the country, we discovered this old abandoned school.
This old hitching post and water pump located in the back yard of the school.



Crawford and Ft. Robinson, Nebraska

Crawford sprang up as a tent city on land owned by homesteader-newspaper correspondent William E. Annin in 1886 when the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad pushed through the Nebraska Panhandle. To incorporate the town, editor William Edgar supplemented civilian signatures with those of obliging soldiers stationed at nearby Fort Robinson. After the Burlington Railroad passed northward in 1887, Crawford became a supply depot and entertainment center for the Fort. Troops no longer man the "Outpost on the Plains," but the Fort, 3 miles to the west, remains as an important historic site and tourist attraction.

Named for Army Captain Emmet Crawford, a Fort Robinson soldier, the city lies in the White River Valley in Pine Ridge country and serves an extensive cattle ranching and farming area. The Fort Laramie-Fort Pierre Fur Trail of the 1840s and the Sidney-Black Hills Trail active during the Black Hills gold rush of the 1870s both passed through this site. Crawford has been host or home to such personages as Sioux Chief Red Cloud; former desperado David (Doc) Middleton; poet-scout John Wallace Crawford; frontierswoman Calamity Jane; Army scout Baptiste (Little Bat) Garnier, shot down in a saloon; military surgeon Walter Reed, conqueror of Yellow fever; and President Theodore Roosevelt.

Black soldiers of the Ninth and Tenth cavalry regiments (called 'buffalo soldiers' by the Plains Indians) garrisoned Fort Robinson for eighteen years and played an important role in northwestern Nebraska's history. Organized in 1866, the regiments first served in the Southwest.
In 1885 the Ninth Cavalry arrived at Fort Robinson, which was regimental headquarters from 1887 to 1898. The black troopers helped build the new post during the fort's 1887 expansion and were the first cavalrymen sent to the Pine Ridge Reservation during the Ghost Dance trouble of 1890. Lt. John Alexander, the second African American graduate of West Point, and Henry Plummer, the first black chaplain in the regular army, served here. So did ten buffalo soldier Medal of Honor men. 
In 1902 the men of the 'Fighting Tenth' Cavalry, veterans of the Battle of San Juan Hill, made their headquarters here. Four years later the Tenth helped capture Ute Indians who had fled their Utah reservation, the last military action against Indians on the northern Plains. In 1907 the regiment left for duty in the Philippines."

The view inside Ft. Robinson.


Just before 10 P.M. on January 9, 1879, the 130 Cheyennes held in the cavalry barracks made their desperate bid for freedom. After disabling the soldier guards, they fled across this ground to the White River beyond. Under heavy fire from pursuing troops, they followed the river and climbed the high buttes several miles to the west. During this initial fighting, twenty-seven Cheyennes and five soldiers were killed. The Cheyennes were buried in a mass grave near the post sawmill."

The scenery around Ft. Robinson.

Montrose, Nebraska

This monument on the summit of a conical hill nearby, honors Col. Wesley Merritt and troops of the Fifth US Calvary who used this position to prevent a group of approximately 800 Cheyenne Indians from joining the victors of the Little Big Horn Battle. As the troops charged toward the southeast, the Cheyenne returned to the Red Cloud Indian Agency near Fort Robinson. The Indian leader, Yellowhand, was killed during the skirmish. 
This same hilltop was the site of a civilian "fort" used in protecting area residents in case of Indian attack during the Ghost Dance troubles of 1890. The anticipated attack never came. Parts of this outpost are still visible.
Montrose Church and cemetery.

Immaculate Conception Church was planned in 1886 and build in 1887.

The oldest grave in the cemetery is dated 1839.



Across the road from the Montrose church is a monument that marks the spot where Buffalo Bill Cody scalped Chief Yellowhand, the Cheyenne leader, after hand to hand combat.  His scalp was displayed for years in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.

The Oglala National Grassland

The Oglala National Grassland covers 94,400 acres of the Nebraska panhandle. This ocean of prairie grass brings to mind what early settlers found throughout the area. The grass stretches from horizon to horizon.


The next two pictures show some petrified sand dunes and sand...



Lots of signs like this along the drive.
Other sights along the way...


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.