A cloud of dust, the clank of spurs and a Glacier Park guide dismounted from his horse to meet the friendly welcoming smile of Charles M. Russell.  Perhaps it was the guide’s manner that attracted the attention of the artist, but it is more likely that the keen eye of Russell at once recognized that here was a man who had just naturally grown up around cattle and horses.  They were strangers only a minute and then a friendship was born that lasted until the great artist’s death, and his passing brought to light the story of these two.

The guide was Charles A. Beil, and he was fond of drawing; that was what drew him to Russell in the beginning.  All of his life he had wanted to draw and he liked to draw the same things that Russell did.  Somehow there was an understanding between these two that ripened into trust and admiration.  Hardly a day passed during the last months of Russell’s life that they were not together, and later the public saw this devoted friend riding behind the horse drawn hearse at the Russell funeral.  It is this same friend who is now preparing copy to be used on the Russell tombstone.

Models made by Russell lacking the finishing touches were given to Beil by Mrs. Russell for completion. Russell canvases done years ago having suffered some damage were brought to him for retouching.

“He’s the best I ever did see,” said Russell, and only the day before his death he climbed the two flights of stairs leading to the little studio where Beil works, that he might autograph a photo for him. Almost as if he knew that life was shortly to end he mentioned how he wished several unfinished models completed, among them his Xmas gift for Mrs. Russell – a stage coach drawn by six horses.  True, there was not a great deal to do, but what there was remained for Beil to finish.

Beil does his modeling with an Indian arrow, which he found while punching cows for the Blackfeet Livestock Company, north of Milk River.  He had spent the forenoon in the saddle and in company with other riders was making camp for dinner and a change of horses.  Anyone accustomed to ranches knows the way a pincher accomplishes this particular feat is not slow, also that he invariably keeps one eye on the ground.  Perhaps he unconsciously seeks to avoid badger holes or is watching for a good place to alight should his horse accidentally step into one and hurriedly dispatch him toward a rather rough and sudden landing.

Anyway, Beil’s eye caught sight of a small object on the ground, and after a battle with his horse, which insisted on keeping up with the others, picked up what proved to be an Indian arrow, and was just the thing for making models.  Since that time he has used no other tool save an ordinary jack knife.

Beil was born in Germany and became a typical cowpuncher using for the most part the southwestern or Spanish way of working horse and cattle.  He knows the life he portrays.  Throughout his boyhood days he loved to draw, and he had heard of a man named Russell, who could portray both the Spanish and Northern way of cow punching.  It was only natural that some day he should make his way north and when the Dempsey fight took place at Shelby, Beil was present.  Then came a series of jobs in the North, among them that of a guide in Glacier Park, which led to the eventual meeting with Russell.

During the last year Beil’s work has been on exhibition in various parts of the country.  Mrs. E.F. Young of Carmel-by-the-Sea owns a typical Spanish piece, that of a Spanish vaquero.  Sid Willis of Great Falls owns several pieces, one of them much admired by Russell.  The model is that of a cow puncher “front-footing” a horse.

Courtesy of Miss Fernald – Great Falls Library – Sept. 1931