Russell’s “paper talk,” or illustrated letters, gave free rein to his verbal and visual talent. Although putting words on paper came hard to him, he possessed a natural gift as a storyteller, along with the ability to summarize the key elements of a story or description in a well-chosen illustration. Surviving rough drafts of a few Russell letters—as well as preliminary sketches for the illustrations—indicate that he planned some of them in advance. Rodeos were popping up everywhere in 1925, and Russell seems to have been invited to most of them. As he mentioned in a letter to a friend who was promoting the Bozeman rodeo, “The old west is wired now but I’m glad we still got bronks and bronk riders. My hat’s off to all them riders and ropers; they’re all we got left of the old west.” He tentatively agreed to attend the Calgary Stampede for that year, providing his friend Guy Weadick, the founder of the event, with two sketches to use in promotional materials. But despite his enthusiastic vow to attend, a busy summer schedule prevented it. Instead, the Russells went on the Upper Missouri River Historical Expedition, visting sites from Fort Union to Marias Pass in Glacier Park, as special guests of the Great Northern Railway.