Montana's northcentral region is named for the cowboy artist who captured this vast and vivid landscape on canvas. Charlie Russell loved the West as he knew it at the turn of the century and mourned its loss as white civilization encroached. His adopted home was Great Falls
, which has preserved the most complete collection of Russell Art and Memorabilia at the C. M. Russell Museum. Lewis and Clark explored this land via the original highway of the west, the Missouri River
. Much of their route remains unchanged from the way it appeared to them in 1805-6, especially the stretch of river below Fort Benton
that has been designated the Upper Missouri National Wild and Scenic River.