Great Falls

We said goodbyes and extended our thanks to Bob Nystrand for his wonderful hospitality, then headed up I-15 to Great Falls, Mt. Lewis and Clark had a major challenge to portage all their boats and gear around the Great Falls. We set ourselves up at our RV park and headed into town. We first went to The Charles Russell Museum. Charlie Russell, the Cowboy Artist, was a prolificate producer or paintings, sculptures, clay and porcelain painted figures, and books of the west. At 12 years old he won a sculpture prize at a St. Louis Fair, but was unable to devote himself to art at that point. His parents tried sending him to New Jersey to a military school to straighten him out, but it didn't take. He was sent to Montana with a family friend to work on the range in the hopes that the hard work would prove discouraging to him. He called Montana home from that moment on and worked as a cowboy while teaching himself painting. Eventually, local folks bought enough of his work for him to devote himself to art. His water colors of western scenes are just amazing, as are his oil works. As his poularity grew, he went on the road to do shows in galleries around the country and began to meet and learn from artists in many different mediums. He must have worked sun up to sun down to produce all the work. Even his thank you notes and personal letters contained little sketches, which are now highly prized. The museum has five or six rooms of his work and then a number of rooms of other western artists. For my money, it's the most enjoyable art museum yet. A can't miss stop if you get to Great Falls.
From there we went to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. I guess the government not only wants us to learn about history but also wants to help us interpret it . What would they do if the populous was to interpret facts on their own? The government learned this trick from the news media which has long felt they needed to help us think about things. But, to get back on message, the exhibit was excellent and we spent a couple hours following the voyage of The Corp of Discovery. A number of years ago, Steven Ambrose wrote a book called "Undaunted Courage" about Lewis and the expedition. It's an excellent read for anyone interested in stuff like that.
Today we head for Kalispel and Glacier National and the Going-to-the-Sun Road. Now that's exciting.