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(beat music)
NARRATOR: In the Niobrara River Valley
there is a place where even time could go
to catch its breath.
A place where millions of years ago
and an ancient ecosystem thrived,
but unfortunately, it also died.
Today, this landmark
is one of America's most remote national parks.
Created by Congress in June of 1965,
Agate Fossil Beds National Monument
is a convergence of natural, cultural
and American history.
JAMES HILL: It was set aside
to preserve the unique paleontology,
the associated geology, that was found here.
And then, also, as a venue to display and care
for a very noted collection
of American Indiana artifacts.
NARRATOR: The origins of the park are tied
to a 19th century cowboy named James Cook.
Cook came to the panhandle as a backcountry guide
when the state of Nebraska was new
and the Lakota people were being pushed
to reservations in Dakota territory.
HILL: He happens to be at the Red Cloud Agency,
when one of the premiere paleontologists,
O.C. Marsh, was there meeting with the Oglala
and other Sioux tribal chiefs and elders.
NARRATOR: In 1874, as the Black Hills gold rush
was under way,
paleontologists were combing the Great Plains,
searching for fossils during what is called
the Great Dinosaur Rush.
HILL: This is the same time that European-Americans
are finding gold in the Black Hills
and so, the Indians are not particularly
disposed to let Marsh and his party pass.
In the midst of those discussions,
James Cook was called on
because it was suggest that he knew enough Lakota
that he could interpret.
So he was able to prevail on Red Cloud
and other assembled Indian elders
that O.C. Marsh wasn't interested in gold.
That, in fact, he was hunting for fossils.
NARRATOR: Cook's skillful mediation of the dispute
left a lasting impression on the Oglala chief.
It also gave Cook his first glimpse
of the emerging science.
These two things would later play important roles
in his life.
James Cook went on to take a job
at a ranch south of Harrison
and then fell in love and married the rancher's daughter.
HILL: James and Kate were out riding
and they spied some glittering material on the ground.
They thought they were just pony bones
or something like that.
Maybe associated with an American Indian burial.
NARRATOR: The bones the young couple discovered
would turn out to be some of the first
Miocene mammal fossils discovered in America.
But it would also be 20 more years
before the world would know about them.
HILL: In 1904, a paleontologist who had been working
north of here, in northern Sioux county,
James Cook prevailed on him to come up here
to the bone hills and see the fossils.
And the story runs,
that the paleontologist raced all the way
back to the ranch house, told his assistant,
put the horses and wagons in the barn.
We're stayin' for a few days.
(triumphant music)
HILL: There was a period of 20 years,
where various institutions
from largely in the east,
Yale, Harvard,
the Carnegie Museum, the American Museum.
Those paleontologists were keenly interested in the large,
very well preserved fossils that they could find here.
NARRATOR: The fossils were discovered
in two lone hills.
One became know as Carnegie Hill
and the other, University Hill.
Erwin Barbour, head of
the University of Nebraska paleontology department,
spent several summers excavating that site.
HILL: Most of the fossil excavations here,
by major institutions,
were over by 1923.
(foreboding music)
NARRATOR: The hills contained unusual looking animals
that roamed the Great Plains 18 to 23 million years ago.
The sloth-footed Chalicothere Moropus.
The small, antelope-like Stenomylus Camel.
The North American rhinoceros called Minoceros.
The Palaeocastor, a beaver that dug corkscrew burrows.
Dinohyus, a cross between a bison and a pig.
And Daphoenodon, or bear dog,
a carnivore with bone crushing teeth.
HILL: This was the first place
these animals were ever discovered to science.
So that's what makes the Fossil Hills and Agate fossil beds
really so iconic.
NARRATOR: Scientists believe the prehistoric mammals
died during a period of climate change,
a warming trend that caused a mega drought.
HILL: This was the last water hole in the area
and so it's too far away to go find food,
so they just lie down and die in mass.
Much like we see animals doing in east Africa today,
during periods of drought.
So you have a large death scene
and then carnivores come in and just have a field day.
Whether this happened all together
or whether is happened in phases,
you know, over hundreds of years,
I'm not sure we know that,
but what we do know is that these animals
were found in massive numbers
in, what truly is, a large death assemblage,
here on these two hills.
NARRATOR: Agate Fossil Beds National Monument
is also known for its collection
of 500 plus Native American artifacts.
In 1874, when James Cook successfully mediated
the agreement for passage between
Paleontologist O.C. Marsh and Red Cloud,
it marked the beginning of a life-long friendship
between the Oglala chief and the cowboy rancher.
HILL: And they would get passes from the government
to come off the reservation and stay around the Cook ranch.
They would conduct traditional ceremonies
and dances and think a good time
was probably had by all.
NARRATOR: This irreplaceable assemblage
of Lakota cultural history is a result of gifts
given to James Cook over several years.
HILL: There's a rich legacy of the Oglala
and other visiting tribal members
actually presenting to Cook and his family
just magnificent pieces of American Indian
material culture and artifacts.
NARRATOR: Along a quiet highway,
in the far corner of Nebraska,
you can off the grid at Agate Fossil Beds
and step back in time
to see where ancient antelope played
and magnificent buffalo once roamed.
(beat music)