Montana State Capitol and the Russell Mural
Near Helena, Montana
The copper-domed building in the center of Helena is the Montana State Capitol, and it holds what many consider the defining image of the American West.
Helena won the right to be Montana's capital in an eighteen ninety-four election that pitted it against Anaconda in one of the most expensive and corrupt political campaigns in state history. The copper-mining magnate Marcus Daly backed Anaconda; the silver and land interests backed Helena. Helena won. The cornerstone of the capitol building was laid in eighteen ninety-nine, and the building was dedicated on July fourth, nineteen oh two. Architects Charles Bell and John Kent designed it in the French Renaissance style, with a copper-sheathed dome that turns green as it weathers.
The wings were added between nineteen oh nine and nineteen twelve, and the state legislature decided that Montanans should paint them. Three Montana artists were commissioned: Edgar Paxson, Ralph DeCamp, and Charles M. Russell. Russell's contribution became the most famous.
The mural titled Lewis and Clark Meeting the Flathead Indians at Ross' Hole was completed in nineteen twelve. It is twenty-five feet wide and twelve feet high, painted in oil directly on canvas mounted to the wall of the House chamber. What makes it unusual is the compositional choice Russell made: the Salish people fill the foreground of the painting in full, dignified presence. Lewis and Clark appear behind them, almost as background figures, observers in a world that belonged to others.
Russell was a working cowboy before he was a celebrated painter. He had lived alongside the Blackfeet and the Metis in the eighteen eighties, and his sympathy for Native peoples ran through his entire body of work. The mural reflects that sympathy at the scale of an entire wall in the seat of state government.
The capitol building is open for tours. The Russell mural is free to see.
