Agate Nebraska

Former ranch post office · Sioux County · post office 1899–1968

About Agate

Agate is the site of a ranch post office on NE 29 where it crosses the Niobrara River in southern Sioux County, about 19 miles south-southeast of Harrison and 33 miles north of Mitchell. Agate Fossil Beds National Monument's visitor center is 3 miles east on River Road.

History

Dr. Elisha B. Graham started a ranch here in 1878 near the Niobrara crossing of the military road between Fort Laramie and Fort Robinson. James H. and Kate Cook bought it in 1887 as the Agate Springs Ranch, named for the moss agate near the springs, and Kate's mother, Mary Graham, became the first postmistress when the Agate post office opened in 1899; it closed in 1968. Red Cloud and other Lakota leaders visited the Cooks for years, and their gifts form the Cook Collection now shown at the monument. In August 1904 a Carnegie Museum party with the Cooks' son Harold found the 20-million-year-old bonebed that became the monument, authorized in 1965 and established in 1997.

Things to see

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, 301 River Road: the Daemonelix Trail (1 mi) and Fossil Hills Trail (about 2.7 mi), the Cook Collection and summer tipi displays; no entrance fee · the Harold J. Cook "Bone Cabin," 3 mi east inside the monument (National Register)