Agate Fossil Beds National Monument notches its 50th birthday this coming weekend/David and Kay Scott

Agate Fossil Beds, established in 1965 as a national monument located in western Nebraska, will celebrate it 50th birthday on Saturday, July 25. Various activities are planned throughout the day during which guests will be treated to a birthday cake.

A special paleontologist-led walk to the Fossil Hills, “Hike to the Past,” will begin at 9 a.m. At 12:30 p.m., Gretchen Meade, great-granddaughter of James Cook, will talk about her memories of being at the ranch. James Cook was owner of the ranch on which the monument is located.

Dr. Greg McDonald, a paleontologist and the current senior curator of natural history in the National Park Service Museum Management Program, will present “Moropus to Horses” from 2 p.m.-3 p.m. Following this, Ranger Alvis Mar will speak about the history of the Bone Cabin, a structure on the ranch built by James Cook‘s son.

Children’s activities will include Junior Ranger and Junior Paleontologist programs, plus an opportunity to paint fossil magnets. Two National History Day projects of local students about James Cook will be on display.

The site preserves a treasure-trove of mammalian fossils from 19 million years ago/David and Kay Scott

On Friday, Maryann Neubert, a curator from Fort Laramie National Historic Site, will present a special program for monument visitors. Throughout the summer Ms. Neubert has been traveling to Agate Fossil Beds and offering discussions of items from the Cook Collection. On Friday she will remove and discuss items discovered in Cook’s desk.

Ms. Neubert will also demonstrate the art of spinning and the natural dying of materials.

The monument’s visitor center offers reproductions of mammal skeletons, a slab of bones taken from the Fossil Hills, and several interactive displays. The 12-minute introductory video will be available and the James Cook Gallery of Lakota Culture will be open. In the early 1900s, fossils were discovered on James Cook’s Agate Springs Ranch located on the far western edge of Nebraska. Paleontologists discovered a 19.2 million-year-old bonebed of fossils from the Age of Mammals that followed the Age of Dinosaurs.

The monument’s visitor center offers reproductions of mammal skeletons, a slab of bones taken from the Fossil Hills, and several interactive displays/David and Kay Scott