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Museum lands rare CM Russell original letter |
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Wednesday, 13 August 2008 |
By Buck Traxler, I-O Editor
 Ruth Cook, curator of The Conrad Transportation and Historical Museum, announced this past week that the museum has received a gift of an original Charlie M. Russell letter.
The letter was written to Marlea (Molly) Russell, no relation to the famed artist, in December of 1921 and was presented as a gift to the museum by her daughter Jane Valentine.
In 1921, Molly was on a yearbook staff and wrote to A. J. Fowler and Russell asking for some information about the Whoop-Up Trail for an article to be printed in the yearbook.
Both men answered her request. Russell wrote to her that the Whoop-Up Trail went from Fort Benton to Fort Whoop-Up, a trading post on the Belly River near the mouth of St. Marys River.
He wasn’t sure when the post was closed down, but he knew the builders traded whiskey to the Blackfeet for buffalo robes.
He also mentioned that a man from another fort, up the river came to Fort Benton and told of a big camp of Blackfeet were all drunk and whooping-it-up. After that it was called Fort Whoop-Up.
An expert at the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls has authenticated the original letter. The museum offered to purchase the original, however, Cook, said, “The letter is not for sale.”
While many of Russell’s letters have doodles and/or a cattle skull on them, this correspondence is plain.
The curator of the museum in Great Falls told Cook that many of Russell’s personal letters did not contain the marginal scribbles.
Russell was born in 1864 in St. Louis and first came to Montana as a boy of 16.
He had a dream then of becoming a real cowboy.
In 1882, he landed a job as a wrangler on a cattle drive and went on to be a wrangler for 11 years.
He was not known to be a good roper or rider, but gained a reputation as the friendly cowboy who liked to draw and could spin a great story.
Russell was a self-taught artist and while his work was considered crude, it nevertheless reflected an observant eye for animal and human anatomy, a sense of humor and a flair for portraying action.
In 1896 he married Nancy Cooper and it was she who ultimately provided the business sense that made C.M. Russell one of America’s most popular artists.
Her drive eventually landed a one man show at a New York gallery in 1911 and three years later an exhibition in London made him famous world-wide.
He passed away in 1926.
The museum’s original letter has an insurance value of approximately $10,000 and for now is being kept in a safe. There is a copy of the original for museum visitors to see.
Cook noted, “We are extremely fortunate to have this original document. It’s a great piece of history.”
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