CM Russell

Posted on by merryme

Today we went to the Charlie M Russell museum and saw lots of his paintings, sculptures, letters plus his home and studio.  The only Russell’s I’ve seen previously were his sculptures and I thought that was what he was famous for.  But apparently he only made the sculptures to see the shadow play for use in his paintings.

This was one of my favorites. The Fireboat 1918. It shows the Indians looking down and to the bottom left at the new steamboat that just showed up in their territory.
They say that no one can paint a sunset like Charlie can. This painting is a good example of how he captures the colors perfectly.
Charlie had a sense of humor and often made whimsical pieces like this for children.
CM Russell. He always wore his hair cut like this, the cowboy hat back on his head like that, a necktie and a red fringed sash for a belt and cowboy boots.

Afterwards we went to Giant Spring State Park.  It has one of the largest freshwater springs in the country and was recorded by Lewis and Clark on their journey in 1805.  It produces 156 million gallons of water a day at a constant 45 degrees.  Compare this to Florida’s springs which are a constant 72 degrees per day.  What was so interesting about this spring was how the water was clear as it entered the Missouri River, and would stay that way for miles on one side of the river before mixing with the muddy Missouri.

Giant Spring. Notice the the water is clear in the foreground and the muddy line halfway up which is the Missouri River.
At the Spring, they also had a fish hatchery where they raised these beautiful rainbow trout. You can faintly see the red stripe on their sides.

Afterwards we went next door to the National Forest Service’s Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.  This is one of the best ones we’ve be to.  It covered the entire trip all the way to the ocean whereas all the other ones we visited would stop the story at the location we were currently.

This diorama shows the white pirouge, the red pirouge and the keelboat which comprised the first part of L/C’s journey.
This exhibit shows how they had to haul (portage) their boats 18 miles around the waterfalls near Great Falls, Montana.

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