February 2019 44 Cowboy Charlie continued from page 43 As aforementioned Charlie and Nancy Russell had no children of their own, so they were quite grateful and joyous when they were able to adopt a son, Jack Russell, in 1916. A happy Russell commented in a letter to a friend that "he was a little two-month slickear when we put our iron on him. His name is Jack . . .so he's ours all right and we shure love him"...(Sophia Craze, Charles Russell, 2003, p. 16) The laurels kept coming in that last decade of Russell's life. In 1921 he collected $10,000 for one of his small paintings, that price being the highest price paid to an American artist at that time. By 1925 every major American city had a Charles Russell exhibition. Russell was appreciated and loved, not only in his beloved Montana, but throughout the United States and the European art world, but by that time the artist was failing fast. Years of hard living had started to affect his heart by 1920, and a goiter operation that was held off until it was almost too late greatly affected his already weakened heart. Sensing he was in a race against time, Russell's art, more rich, more colorful reflected his desperation in capturing the Old West that was lost. He had also chosen to write a couple of books chronicling in thinly-disguised fiction his vast Cowboy life experience, the aforementioned (and wonderful) Trails Plowed Under which would be published posthumously. The end for Charlie Russell came on the evening of October 24, 1926, when his great and good heart finally gave out. It can be said that Russell did die a contented man, sad that his Old West was gone but happy in his family life, his love for Nancy and Jack, his many close friends, receiving the acclaim of the world but particularly his beloved Montana for capturing the spirit, the beauty, the good and the bad of the Old West. As he wrote just prior to his death in a brief personal introduction to Trails Plowed Under: "Any man who can make a living doing what he likes is lucky, and I'm that. Any time I cash in now I win." (Russell, Trails Plowed Under, 1927, p.xx.) For years Russell would send out letters beautifully illustrated with (usually) a color drawing of his Cowboy life, of Indians roaming the plains, or of his experiences. During his visit to St. Louis Russell, not particularly impressed with the World's Fair or city buildings, chose to visit what he called "the animal gardens" (the St. Louis Zoo). In a letter he wrote to a friend, reproduced in the splendid "Paper Talk Charles Russell's American West", Russell wrote of his encountering a poor, lone coyote, sitting in one of the zoo's cages. As he walked up to the cage the coyote approached him standing on the opposite side of the bars, sniffed him and then licked his hand! As Russell retold it in his own words in an illustrated letter of his meeting with the coyote to his friend and neighbor Albert Trigg: "I have taken in the words fair grounds. . .it is verry grand but don't interest me much...the animal gardens which is near thair is more to my liking...they have a verry good collection among them a cyote who licked my hand like he knew me I guess I bought the smell of the planes with me...I shure felt sorry for him poor deval...a life sentence for nothing on earth but looks and general princepales but you can do nothing for a feller whos hol famely is out laws as far back as aney body knowes even if he is a nabor of yours. If he could make hair bridles it would bee a hollot easier but with nothing to do but think of home its Hell that all"... (Russell, edited by Dippie, Paper Talk, 1979, p. 49) This brief illustrated correspondence pretty much sums up the character of Charlie Russell. He lived the hard life of a Cowboy, he saw the gunfights and saw men he considered to be good or bad gunned down in saloon gunfights, or trampled to death during stampedes, he lived with the Indians and quite unusual for a white Cowboy living in Montana almost always took their side. He loved Montana's ethereal mountains and blue skies, and despite how many major cities in the United States and Europe he visited, he always wished to scurry home to Montana. And as pointed out in the above passage, he appreciated and even liked those creatures who were not always liked by his friends and neighbors. For him, the mountains of Montana were their home too as much as his. He loved the simple things, and openly mourned the end of the Old West and the way of life he was used to living. He modestly described himself as the "Cowboy Painter of the West that has Passed" ( Sophia Craze, Charles Russell, 2003, p. 17) Charlie Russell was not just a very likable Cowboy artist and a friend to all he knew. Painting from the heart and experience he was arguably our greatest Cowboy artist - and a GREAT AMERICAN to boot. WICKENBURG Arizona Ranch style home with amazing views on top of a hill in Wickenburg Country Club! There is a pool, spa, small horse set up with turn out and barn. The home boosts 2 master suites, one with it’s own private entrance! Almost 5 acres. $439,000 LAND FOR SALE 8 ACRES HORSE PROPERTY flat and usable; private well + 4 shares in a shared well. $175,000 (agent/owner) 8 PRISTINE ACRES OF HORSE PROPERTY in the heart of Wickenburg. Great Views! Can be split into two - 4 acre lots (survey available). Build on one and sell the other! $189,500 COMING SOON - 60 ACRES (3 parcels) with patented mining claims in the Wickenburg Mountains. 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