Montana People - Charlie Russell

C.M. (Charlie) Russell lived with one foot planted firmly in each of two centuries.  With the first foot, as a young adult, Charlie spent most of the latter part of the 19th century as a cowboy, exchanging sheep-herding for cattle wrangling, with planned side-trips and encounters with the last vestiges of the roaming Northern Plains Indians, while dabbling in drawing and art.  His other foot was planted in Great Falls toward the turn of the century, where he took up residency as a full-time artist, producing nearly 4,000 works of art during his remaining years.  Charlie was a cowboy, an artist, sculptor, writer, historian, and early environmentalist.  A bit of a Luddite, who abhorred the auto, his final wish to be carried to his burial by a horse-drawn carriage took place in 1926.