Red Lodge daily news combined with Carbon County news., 1934-06-27
COOKIES

The story of Frank c. Byrnes, Cooke CITY olduner'
annoaring elsewhere in this issue of The News, can pc
taton a. commemorative of scores of other oldtimers IN
tbe Beartooth metropolis of the rich New World mining
area today. Mr.. Byrnes' feelings, as expressed III the ar
ticle. were given as those OF an individual. however, Il 10!
safe to state that they are also those OF the vast majority
of the men who for the past many years have chung to the
belief that Cooke City would one DAY emerge DIS jill u
the richest mining camps in the West.
We have nothing but admiration for the foresight and
fortitude shown bv these hardy sons of the Beartooth
mountain outnost. The full record of their hopes and dis
appointments, their patience and %ploddlng toll through
out the intervening years may never be set 1orth' HOW,
ever. these traits were possessed by the men who forged
an empire out of the wilderness OF the west, ana these
Cooke CITY pioneers are undoubtedly men of the same
stripe. In fact, it has been said, that nowhere IN the
United States today, despite all OF the reylvlng 'gnost
towns, has the spirit of the Old West been so completely
resurrected as it has in Cooke City at the present time.
This IS plainly due to the fact that Cooke could never
have been properly called a "ghost town" at any time
during the three score years that it has been LII existence
There has always been some activity there to waylay tins
allegation. Incidentally, the term ghost tow" When
appiied to Cooke is resented by its older inhabitants, and
rightly so, as they point out, because at no time has the
town been abandoned to earn the title.
Cooke, like Rip Van Wrinkle, has merely been sumber-
ing all these years, and, again like the famous flctlon
character, upon reawakening, has retained the quaint APP
pearances, the memories and the rugged individuality OF
the mining town of a half century ago. Indeed, the pag-
cant of Alder Gulch and Virginia City, OF Last Chance,
of Gold creek and Of all of the other thriving camps OF
otner years thdl pllShten ~ p"Seo " "on' 81
today, is being reenacted with the stage set high IN the
picturesque Beartooths. 1t may be best to mention, how
ever, that Cookies boom, although set in the background
of the late sixties and early seventies and with virtually
the same type Of characters that stomped the early stage,
is being brought about by modern means and methods.
This picture is best brought forth by Mr.. Byrnes' men
ton of the fact that the town now has five gasoline dis
pensing stations. In another day Mr.. Byrnes would no
doubt have said "five saloons' or Give livery stables"
But such are the inroads of modernity and its encroach-
ments upon the simple and rugged nativeness of Cooke is
neither to be lamented nor bemoaned.
The fact remains that, without it, Cooke would not now
be experiencing such a pulsation of new life. "lt has
brought us out of the darkness into the light is the way
Mr.. Byrnes expressed himself in regard to the new Red
Lodge-Cooke City highway and the few men who made
its construction possible. No one could have expressed, in
so few words, the importance of the new highway to the
development and growth of the new Cooke. The highway,
when completed, will provide the w~ell-spring of all life
and activity into the little mountain town, a trend that is
being noted today even before its completion.