Agate Fossil Beds National Monument is out in the middle of the prairie many miles from any sizable city, in fact the closest town is Harrison, Nebraska 25 miles to the north, a community of less than three hundred people. What was once the Agate Springs Ranch, it’s the site of some incredible paleontological finds of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. We knew it was rich in fossils, but we didn’t expect a wonderful collection of Native American artifacts that were gifts to James H. Cook from Chief Red Cloud and other members of the Lakota. The cross cultural respect reflected in this collection is profound!
An article from 2018 gives a nice overview of the collection of artifacts from the Cook – Red Cloud friendship: https://www.starherald.com/news/local_news/agate-display-gives-insight-into-a-friendship-across-the-ages/article_90b1a972-eb4d-52f3-bfc5-6fb475a2c5e7.html