Also, the ponies failed to pick up any speed, and seemed to be pulling hard on the light rig. Xext morning he discovered the cause.

One of the jokes of the ranchmen in north Garden county, whenever visiting Omaha or other markets, was to pose as the "Mayor of Mumper." Mumper was a postoffice at a ranch in the Sand Hill country, and while "Mayor of Mumper" was impressive among distant strangers, at home it had about as much significance as mayor of a hill of sand.

FIRST RAXCH IN DAWES COUNTY -- GRAHAM AND SNYDER ON NIOBRARA RIVER -- OTHER RANCHES XEAR FORT ROBINSON -- STAM- PEDIN' ON THE OLD TRAIL

After the establishment of Fort Robinson, soldiers of fortune and others began building ranches within the radius of its protection.

The first to enter ranching activities in the territory now embraced in Dawes county, was Edgar Beecher Bronson, on Dead Man's creek, a few miles southwest of the present site of Crawford. The Sioux name for this creek was Ghost creek. Bronson located there about 1878, and about the same time Dr. E. B. Graham and R. Snyder established themselves on the Niobrara, at Agate, which has later become famous as the home of Captain James H. Cook.

Bronson moved to the Niobrara in 1879, and located about twelve miles east of Graham and Snyder. He became a writer of considerable note, publishing a book of western adventure.

Captain Cook is also a well known character in western Nebraska early life when Indians were a menace. At the Agate ranch has been unearthed and developed one of the most famous fossil beds of the world. Mr. Cook, though long before in the west, purchased the Graham ranch about 1887.