In the early 1920s a group of Charles M. Russell’s closest friends in Great Falls, Montana, were partners in the Montana Newspaper Association, a venture that published advertising supplements in the state’s daily newspapers. They hit upon the idea to publish a series of entertaining stories chronicling the history of the Old West, and they prevailed on Russell to provide pen-and-ink illustrations for each one. These stories appeared nearly every Sunday for a year, from March 5, 1922, through February 18, 1923. Most of Montana’s 170 newspapers carried this popular series. For his part, Russell was glad to participate; he loved the history of the American West and avidly read many books on the subject. Today these wonderfully narrative drawings stand apart from the articles they once accompanied. The original ink drawing pictured here was originally in the estate of the artist’s widow, Nancy C. Russell. It is part of the largest selection of them to be found anywhere—almost half the number that the artist eventually produced for the series. In each of them, Russell’s fluid and dexterous lines create a vivid picture of truly historic events—elevating them to the power of epic and myth. The free trappers who ranged the Rocky Mountains in the 1820s and 1830s were often the first to discover reliable trails and passes through the mountains to points farther west. In 1833 a party of trappers led by the legendary mountain man Joseph Reddeford Walker traveled east from the Great Salt Lake to the Sierra Nevada range of California, becoming the first Americans to behold the Yosemite region. This drawing supposedly depicts the exploits of a band of free trappers who journeyed into California at about the same time to raid the mission of San Fernando. After successfully defeating the inhabitants of the mission in a pitched battle, they drove a large herd of stolen horses and mules back over the mountains to Bent’s Fort in present-day Colorado, where the animals brought a good price.