Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Cooke City

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Cooke City

Cooke City’s post office opened in 1957, and 1 of its places is on the National Register

Most of Cooke City was built recently: 0.7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1983. Its Register listing is the Cooke City Store. Below: 5 old photos and papers and maps from 1956 on.

1957first post office
1on the National Register
0.7%homes built before 1940
5old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Cooke City began

When was Cooke City founded?

1957

The Cooke City post office opened in 1957, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Cooke (1882), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 7769 years
Founding year: the first Cooke City post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
The story so far

Cooke City, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Cooke City yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Cooke City is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Park County, Montana, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 77. Prior to 2010, it was part of the Cooke City-Silver Gate CDP. The community sits northeast of Yellowstone National Park on the Beartooth Highway, which leads east to Red Lodge, Montana, on a scenic route climbing to 10,947 feet (3,337 m) in elevation through the Beartooth Mountains and across the Beartooth Plateau. The town's chief industry is tourism, which during the winter includes skiing and snowmobiling. It is named for Jay Cooke, financier of the Northern Pacific Railroad.

Its first post office opened in 1957. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 75 to 77 (+3%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Timeline

Cooke City, 1882 to 1965

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1882Post officeThe Cooke post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1915In the archiveThe Town Crier, v.10, no.51, Dec. 18, 1915
  5. 1956On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  6. 1957Post officeThe Cooke post office closes
  7. 1957Post officeThe Cooke City post office opens
  8. 1965In the archiveCooke City, Silvergate Montana snowstorm 1960s
By decade

Cooke City, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1910s to the 1960s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1910s4 items
The Town Crier, v.10, no.51, Dec. 18, 19151915The Town Crier, v.10, no.51, Dec. 18, 1915The Town Crier, v.12, no.50, Dec. 15, 19171917The Town Crier, v.12, no.50, Dec. 15, 1917The Town Crier, v.12, no.50, Dec. 15, 19171917The Town Crier, v.12, no.50, Dec. 15, 1917The Town Crier, v.14, no.50, Dec. 13, 19191919The Town Crier, v.14, no.50, Dec. 13, 1919
1920s–1950snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
1960s1 item
Cooke City, Silvergate Montana snowstorm 1960s1965Cooke City, Silvergate Montana snowstorm 1960s
1970s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Today7 recent
Overlooking2009OverlookingNew World Mine Site2009New World Mine SiteBeartooth Highway2004Beartooth Highway2003-08-17 Miners Saloon in20032003-08-17 Miners Saloon in2003-08-17 Entering Cooke City from the East20032003-08-17 Entering Cooke City from the East2003-08-17 Cooke City Firehall20032003-08-17 Cooke City Firehall2003-08-17 Colourful trash can in20032003-08-17 Colourful trash can in
On the map

Cooke City on the map, 1956 to 2000

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Cooke City. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Cooke City on the 1956 USGS mapCooke City on the 1986 USGS mapCooke City on the 1991 USGS mapCooke City on the 2000 USGS map1956Cooke City sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Cooke City.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

The Town Crier, v.10, no.51, Dec. 18, 1915
Retake this viewThe Town Crier, v.10, no.51, Dec. 18, 1915, 1915

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Cooke City’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Cooke City

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
1986
Cooke City Store
Cooke City Store
Buildings
Cooke City StoreBuilding

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Cooke City’s post office has been open since 1957. Another post office, Cooke, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Cooke
1882–1957
Cooke City
1957–today
18801950today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Ricci Trailer Terraces
Gone or out of use
Erma Number 1 MinemineErma Number 2 MinemineErma Number 3 MinemineErma Number 4 MinemineIrma MinesmineMcLaren TailingsmineMiller Creek Number 1 MinemineMohawk MinemineMohawk Minemine
1cemetery inside Cooke City
Cooke City

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Help out

Finish Cooke City’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewThe Town Crier, v.10, no.51, Dec. 18, 1…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Silver GateIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Cooke City’s history

What year was Cooke City founded?

The Cooke City post office opened in 1957, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Cooke City?

One place: the Cooke City Store (listed 1986).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (12), the National Register of Historic Places (1), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.