Cattle Baron History

A.B. Cook was the last great Cattle King of Montana before the stock market crash of 1928. He was a celebrated Civil Engineer, and famous railroad contractor, building the world's largest Hereford herd in the twilight of his career. The Mansion was built to celebrate A.B.'s being elected President of the International Hereford association.

The influential A.B. Cook was also responsible for building the now famous Silo landmarks located two miles north of the Mansion. These silos were built to store locally grown sunflower seeds for an enormous experimental sheep feed station.

Cook, a politically active Republican and early supporter of women's rights, was the fountain from which most of the campaign funds flowed for Republican Jeannette Rankin's successful run for the U.S. House of Representatives. She became the first woman in Congress.

A.B. Cook, a young protege of Marcus Daly was the youngest State Auditor. He was thought to be a painful thorn in the sides of the Montana Democratic Party. It is believed by many that political pressures from the opposition led to the forced sale and ultimate collapse of the Cook empire in 1927.

Franklin "Hervey" Cook was A.B. Cook's son. Franklin married a Ventura, CA, oil heiress and was known as the little "Howard Hughes" of Montana. Hervey moved the Mansion from its original location near the now-popular Confederate Gulch Campground on Canyon Ferry Lake to it's present site at the old town of Bedford. After four years of restoration, Hervey lived as a recluse in the old mansion but was murdered in front of the house in 1970 during a robbery gone awry.