Cowboy Adventures During the Wild West
It was the federal government that was sending mail to California through the Isthmus of Panama, a route that was as long and uncertain for mail services as for Forty-Niners (gold seekers during that California Gold Rush of 1849).).
Todd searched for mining camp sites and enrolled hundreds of miners in solitude who wanted to hear from home.
The closest post office was located in San Francisco which was a two-week journey to the city and returning.
The miners were unable to quit their land for too long, so they signed up for the mail service.
On the 14th of July 1849 Todd started delivering mails to the San Francisco post office charging $2.50 for a letter, and one ounce of gold. The price was $16 for delivery to the person who delivered all mail he could find at mine camps.
In his first visit on his first trip, he handed over $150,000 of gold to some merchants for an organization located in San Francisco and was paid $7,500.
As Todd gave the postmaster at the San Francisco post office the long list of names the clerk swears Todd in as a post office clerk to search the letters on his own costing twenty-five cents per letter that he found.
This didn’t bother Todd since he’d found an alternative method to earn money.
He purchased the old New York newspapers for a dollar and sold them for $8 each back in his gold mines.
Another business that he created to make money was the packing of gold from mining camps for deposit in San Francisco in exchange for five present of the value.
Every Thing he Did Changed into Gold
Without touching the handle of a shovel or a pick, Alexander Todd made a fortune by using his good old American creativity.
Charles Marion Russell (1864 – 1926)
Charles Marion Russell, “the cowboy artist,” storyteller and author (also called C. M. Russell, Charlie Russell, and “Kid” Russell) was born in St. Louis, Missouri on March 19, 1864.
Artist from his time in the American Wild West who created more than 4,000 artworks throughout his life, working in bronze, paint as well as ink and the waxes of cowboys and Indians along with landscapes which were located within The Western United States and in Alberta, Canada.
Russell was a fan of Russell was a fan of the “Wild West” and would sit for hours studying about it and was fascinated by fur traders and explorers who passed through Missouri.
He was taught to ride horses in Hazel Dell Farm near Jerseyville, Illinois, on a famous Civil War horse named Great Britain from Col. William H. Fulkerson who was got married to Russell’s family. Russell family.
At the age of 16, Russell left school to pursue his dream of living in his childhood dream of living in the Wild West as an aspiring cowboy on an animal ranch in Montana Then, he went on to work for Jake Hoover, a hunter and trapper who was an rancher.
From Hoover the man learned a lot about the life of Hoover’s Wild West and they remained forever friends.
In 1882 aged 18 years old, Russell worked as a cowboy for several clothes in Montana.
In 1885, the artist began his career in the field of art.
In the winter months of 1886-1887, while working at the O-H Ranch in the Judith Basin of Central Montana The artist painted a series of watercolours.
When the foreman of the ranch received an email from the owner asking how the cattle were doing during the harsh winter, he sent an image of a postcard that Russell had sketched of a decrepit steer being hunted by wolves beneath a dark winter sky.
The rancher displayed the postcard to family members as well as business acquaintances. Eventually, the postcard was displayed at store windows at Helena, Montana giving Russell his first exposure to the public and also commissions to create new work.
His watercolorpainting “Waiting for Chinook” became one of his most well-known paintings.
Native American Culture
The year was 1888. Russell acquired a wealth of knowledge about Native American culture when he was able to spend his time among the Blood Indians which was a part of Blackfeet.
He was a vocal activist in the cause of Native Americans and supported the Chippewa to get their own reservation in Montana.
It was in 1916 that Congress approved legislation that would establish the Rocky Boy Reservation.
Marriage
In 1892, he settled in Great Falls, Montana and in 1896, he got married to the woman he was to marry, Nancy.
From 1904 to when he died in 1926 He also designed his subjects and cast them in bronze.
His painting from 1914 “When the Land was the property of God” is an evocative work by an older artist reflecting on his childhood of his time in the Wild West…swipe here
