, 1923-08-22
Cooke City Waits SO
Years for Dreams
/ To Come True
(Continued from Page "

drunk and became its first occupant,
has a lurch to starboard and a fine
crop of weeds bristling from its dirt
roof, while cob-webs drape themselves
over the windows of the one saloon
out of the thirteen which the town
once boasted, and the sign over the
sidewalk is weather worn and faded.
There are specimens IN every win
dow sill, piled on sidewalks and be-
side doorways, and it is safe to say
that there is no inhabitant of Cooke
City who could not on a wage pro-
duce a "spec'min" from some place of
concealment on his person.
1t is another world and another per-
iod that M drops into in Cooke City.
They have all the old time virtues,
these bent and grizzled p~rospectors.
Sincere, upright, generous, just, theirs
is the code of the West as it was when
Wyoming was a territory and Cooke
City a part of the Crow reservation.
Reserved with strangers, little given
to asking or answering questions, of
few words and low spoken, all with a
dry humor, they are the typical pros
pectors of the western country.
The Cosmopolitan Hotel, of which
Jack Allen, ~ and one of the Oldest
inhabitants, is the proprietor, is the
social center. One end Of the front
office is six inches higher than the
other so that the floor comes up to
meet the unwary and gives one an odd
feeling of being at sea or something
until he gets used to it, while the de-
preston in the other tits a showcase
containing the remnants of a dry
goods emporium, into the air in an
astonishing manner
The office was built as q restaurant
back in 'S4, when folks were not par
ticular and a few inches one way or
the other was a small matter.
1t has been added to until 20 rooms
ramble out over the back lot, all of
which will be filled every night when
Cooke City is again booming.
There is a fine grand piano in the
office, f%reighted in from Bozeman 33
years ago, and still tinkles out the
popular airs of another day when the
visitors, warming their shins at the
big wood stove, call for their favorites
I'm the Cleaning, Blue Bells of
Scotland, Suwanee River-upon such
occasions rs Mrs. Jack Allen finds
time to humor them.
1t was back in 'S2 that Jack Allen
drove the first four horse team from
Bohemian, building his own road as he
came but using the bed of the creek
mostly, and rough going it was over
the boulders. II was something over
100 miles and it took him II days but
he got there.
Another local celebrity is "Bill'
Nichols, "Bill is not given to gadding.
He has ouly been out of the Camp
twice in 40 years and the last time
with rs years Interchangeable Judge
sent for him. He was suppoeced on
n case or he wouldn't have wasted his
time travelling.
He saw n railroad upon that occas-
ion, and other things he had read
about; but he soon had enough and
came back, blase and world-weary
from his adventures with automobiles,
street cars, elevators, telephones and
such g~imcracks.
When he sold his mine for $4,000
and was paid in real money, he talked
of building n palace and going to
Billings or Europe. He sent out for
n fine trunk, big enough TO hold all
the wardrobes in Cooke City, and a
handsome suitcase, and all his old
cronies expected to see him pull out
on the stage almost any day.
But that was two or three years
ago and he is still living in his log