C. M. Russell Museum

Charlie Russell paid for a good deal of his drinking in pictures; by the time he died, the owner of the Mint Saloon in Great Falls held ninety pieces. Nancy Cooper, whom he met in 1895 while she was working as a housekeeper for friends of his in Cascade, married him there in September 1896, and she took over the business. On the advice of a Butte art dealer she became his manager, booked his shows and took his work east.

In 1897 they moved to Great Falls, and in 1900 they built the frame house that still stands here, for about $800; Nancy oversaw it and ran the business from it. In 1903 she had a studio built beside it of red cedar telephone poles, made to look like a cabin on the prairie, and Charlie did most of his important work inside, among the saddles, weapons and clothing he painted from. That winter the couple made their first trip to New York. By 1920 one of his paintings sold for $10,000 in Los Angeles.

Charlie died in the house in October 1926. Nancy gave the studio and its contents to the city in 1928, and Great Falls bought the house and the remaining lots from her. A memorial gallery beside them opened in 1953 and has grown into a museum covering a city block, with thousands of works by Russell and other Western artists. The house and studio are a National Historic Landmark and open with the museum.