Helena rain interlude (Montana's Museum)

Rains engulfed the stretch of mountain between Butte and Helena, with the rain lingering until early afternoon. I had no itinerary, taking my time winding through the mountains and along the riverside on one of the more curvy and scenic interstate stretches of the trip.

Outside the museum

I paused for the little town of Clancy, a 1,000-person former mining town. A handful of restaurants still operated, and Clancy is a few miles downstream from Helena. The short main street had its share of people milling around in the rain on a Saturday morning. 

Once in Helena, I cruised around town, looking for a diversion. In the shadow of the state capitol’s copper dome, I found an easy one. 

Montana’s Museum, the state history museum, only charges $5 per adult, If the museum charged three times that, it would still feel fair. 

Along with a history of the state and its many Native tribes, the museum boasts perhaps the best Charlie Russell artwork collection outside the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls. A statue of Russell greets visitors. His importance to Montana history and art is immense. The paintings go along the walls in chronological order, ending with a painting Russell left unfinished upon his death.

Russell had an ironic way of putting historic moments in the background of his paintings to focus on his depiction of Native life and animals in what became Montana. Russell’s largest painting, Lewis and Clark Meeting the Flatheads in Ross Hole, hangs in the Montana House of Representatives chamber in the capitol. The state museum has assembled an intriguing set of paintings and other works from Russell, enough to comfortable fill a gallery. 

Russell dedicated his career, becoming preeminent Western artist, to capturing images no longer available to the newcomer. He loved Montana above all else. Russell, not much of a writer, would include illustrations in his correspondence with friends. The museum has shelves that house such letters, along with little figures he crafted. 

Many other galleries house cowboy and Montana-themed art. The broad entrance includes painting depicting both Natives and settlers. The one at right struck me for its resemblance to comedian Will Ferrell or potentially Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith (Smith and Ferrell have acknowledge their resemblance, and this fellow could pass for a triplet.

Will Ferrell lookalike

The museum has extensive exhibits detailing the traditional lives of the state’s tribes. It has seven reservations and an eighth tribe finally recognized in 2019. Artifacts go deep into the ancient history of Montana, when the tribes lived alongside the Ice Age and their long-extinct megafauna such as mammoths and short-nosed bears., the latter of which were much larger than modern grizzly/brown bears. 

A little balcony on the second floor houses the remains of Big Medicine, a white bison who lived his entire life on the National Bison Range near Ravalli from 1933 to 1959. Ever since he has resided at the state museum. Not an albino bison but a leucistic bison, Big Medicine had blue eyes to complement his snowy fur. Sixty years on, the fame bison looked pretty well. 

With the Flathead tribes taking over management of the National Bison Range from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, there is talk the bison could move back. No one could fault the tribes for reclaiming him. If he goes, the Montana State Museum will still have a lode of Treasure State treasures to share. 

Big Medicine is all I need.