Cooke City: The Mine Town That Could Not Build a Railroad
Near Cooke City, Montana
Gold was found near the northeast corner of Yellowstone in July of eighteen seventy, and the rush that followed created Cooke City, a mining camp originally called Shoo-Fly. Miners renamed it in eighteen eighty to honor Jay Cooke Jr., whose father had bankrolled the Northern Pacific Railroad.
The New World Mining District had genuine ore, but getting it out was another problem entirely. The only practical solution was a railroad spur through Yellowstone National Park, and through the eighteen eighties Montana businessmen lobbied Congress hard to allow it. Park advocates and conservation-minded legislators fought back.
By the early eighteen nineties, Congress had refused the railroad, and the dream of profitable mining collapsed. Cooke City never grew beyond a small outpost. Today fewer than one hundred people live here year-round.
In summer, US Two-Twelve and the Beartooth Highway bring visitors through. In winter, the highway closes and the only road in runs through Yellowstone itself, making Cooke City one of the most isolated towns in the continental United States.
