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Cooke city Montana

Until 1882, the town and the land around it were within the Crow Reservation. Following numerous skirmishes between the Crow and gold miners the reservation boundry was moved east. Prospectors often accompanied soldiers through Indian lands looking for gold. Gold was found in the early 1870's. The area became known as the New World Mining district. The town was known as Shoo-fly until 1880 when it became known as Cooke City, MT named after a mining investor named Jay Cooke Jr. Cooke promised to use his considerable influence to bring the railroad through the top of Yellowstone Park from Gardiner. This single move would have made the mining much more profitable in the Cooke area. Congress soon put an end to the possibility and unfortunately, Cooke ran into financial difficulty and lost his bonded mining claims.

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Uploaded on August 20, 2012
Taken on August 18, 2012