ArizonaRealCountry.com 43 January 2019 Iwas going to rectify that mistake and write about the larger-than-life, Outlaw-turned- Cowboy-turned-Lawman-turned Notorious Stock Detective - turned Respectable Lawman Canton for this next issue of Arizona Real Country but fate intervened in the premiere of the new exhibit "Charles M. Russell: The Women in his Life and Art" on November 19th at the famed Western Spirit Museum in Scottsdale (scottsdalemuseumwest.org). This writer has always been a fan of Russell's art since he first became aware of the Cowboy Artist's work and accomplishments. Over the intervening years, Russell has become my favorite Western artist, more so than Remington or any of the contemporary artists out there (Stetson tip to the late Joe Beeler and to George Phippen) for he painted, drew, and sculpted straight from the heart without any formal training whatsoever, unlike Remington. In the beginning, before he became an artist, he was a cowpoke and never lost his Cowboy spirit. You can see the realism, the rudimentary details, in his work, and as I viewed the spectacular paintings, drawings, and sculptures in the SMoW's new exhibit, well, it occurred to me, why not write about Charlie Russell and his artistic impact on the history of the Old West? One might say Charles Marion "Charlie" Russell was born into the Old West. Born in 1864, he came from a prominent St. Louis family, how prominent and how into the West this writer himself didn't know until he viewed the Western Spirit exhibit. His grandmother Lucy Bent Russell was a member of the famous Bent family. Charlie's childhood was spent listening to her regale him with tales of her brothers, those adventurous dear friends of Kit Carson who established Bent's Fort, Indian traders Charles (who met that sad end as the American Governor of New Mexico territory when he was murdered by rebellious Indians in the Taos Rebellion at the height of the Mexican War) and William Bent. Besides listening to his grandmother, young Charlie was in a position, his father being a prosperous St. Louis merchant, to meet the mountain men and traders coming back from the territories to sell their furs and purchase goods in St. Louis, and he had an opportunity to hear their tales too. Charlie had all of the privileges of a young American boy growing up in a wealthy family at the close of the Civil War, but having listened to those vivid tales told and spun by his grandmother and those rugged mountain men he hankered for something more exciting - and yes, eventually more creative. He had the Cowboy instinct and he also had the artistic creative juices at an early age, spending a lot of his youth riding, drawing, and sculpting a bear out of a chunk of beeswax his sister had given him when he was 12. His parents, perhaps sensing what was about to come, supposedly sent him off to art school which he took to as his (almost) lifelong friend Will Rogers took to military school, that is, not at all. He came back home one day telling his father he was finished with art school: "The instructor wanted me to draw a plaster foot over and over and he wouldn't tell me what was wrong with my drawing. Just do it over and over!" (Joe Fenton, Wild West Show, 1994, p.107) His parents did send him off to military school in New Jersey when he was 15, hoping that discipline would turn around their stubborn boy. But they were sorely disappointed, as he spent his time drawing Cowboys and Indians in his sketchbook and ignoring his studies. The authorities punished him by making him do "walking guard duty" and at the conclusion of his first term there he went back home to listen to the tales of the mountain men and to dream of going west again. Finally, his despairing father gave in to Charlie, telling him that "since you are determined to go, it is better that you go in the right way." (Sophia Craze, Charles Russell, p. 8, 2003) Charlie's father then arranged for 15-year-old Charlie to go to Montana and work at the sheep ranch of family friend Pike Miller. By all accounts, it wasn't a happy year long stay for the young teen. While he was indeed very fascinated by the blue skies and open range of Montana, the cowboys and Flathead Indians he initially saw, he disliked sheep and they apparently disliked him. He also had problems taking care of himself, as the baby-faced "Kid" Russell was usually seen with matted hair, torn clothes and covered with filth. He came back home - briefly - then turned around and headed back for Montana with no clear plan. However, fate and good luck came in the form of a mountain man named Jake Hoover, whom Charlie met up with. As Russell would later comment: "This life suited me. We had six horses, a saddle apiece, and pack animals" ( Sophia Craze, Charles Russell, p. 10, 2003). Russell would spend two years in the Montana mountains with Hoover but make a lifelong friend of the mountain man. He briefly returned to St. Louis, then went back to Montana virtually penniless, but once again luck smiled on "Kid” Russell when he chanced upon a cattle outfit near Billings. The outfit was about to make its annual round-up in the Judith Basin, and they hired the barely 20-year-old Russell as a "night herder." This was quite a chore for someone who hadn't as yet lived the Cowboy life. His job was to make sure the cattle remained calm throughout the night in the face of Montana's notoriously unpredictable weather and the constant worry of stampedes. Russell was able to make muster and the more experienced Cowhands grew to like the youth who became a good fit for his job. There are at least two photographs of Russell during this time period (circa 1884) from a book entitled The American Cowboy: A Photographic History showing By Alan Rockman Ever have that funny feeling that when you’re on the verge of doing something, something else comes up and you end up doing that something else rather than the original something you were going to start off doing? Well, this writer noticed he had forgotten to write about the notorious Frank Canton, arguably the original real-life character that inspired Owen Wister’s great Western novel, “The Virginian”. PART 1 Cowboy Charlie Russell Captured the Spirit of the Old West With His Paint Brush and His Sculpting Knife continued on page 44