Western artist Charles M. Russell (1864 - 1926) painted nearly 4,000 works of art in his lifetime, many of them set in the Judith River country of his beloved Montana, where he also became a noted writer, conservationist, and advocate of the Northern Plains Indians. His legacy is embodied in the sprawling Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, an 1.1-million-acre tract along 125 miles of the Missouri River that also encompasses the 245,000-acre Fort Peck Reservoir. It is a region of vast native prairie, forested coulees, and badlands that formed the backdrops for much of Russellââ¬â¢s western landscapes. Lewis and Clark passed through the area in 1805 and recorded an abundance of American bison, elk, bighorn sheep, and mule- and white-tailed deer, but many species had been reduced to small, remnant populations hanging on in inaccessible rough terrain by 1936, when the region was first established as a national game range. Fort Peck Reservoir has provided good fishing for walleye, sauger, northern pike, and lake trout for years, as here in this 1950’s era photo.
Hide.