Charlie Russell's guns surface
By ERIC NEWHOUSE
Tribune Projects Editor
To the astonishment of some experts, three of Charlie Russell's rifles are in the hands of a private collector in Great Falls.
"You're kidding!" exclaimed Russell expert Ginger Renner Thursday night. "That's terrific!"
"I didn't know that these guns existed right here in Great Falls," said Anne Morand, chief executive of the C.M. Russell Museum.
The 1873 Winchester and two 1874 Sharps buffalo guns are in the collection of Lewis Yearout, founder of the Montana Gun Collectors Association.
"I had the serial numbers," Yearout said Thursday, "and my son (Leyton) and I bought them right here in town as they were found."
Yearout, 86, has been collecting weapons and guns for half a century — and holding onto most of them. He runs the Montana Outfitters on Bootlegger Trail.
A decade ago, he was offered $50,000 for one of the buffalo guns, but he refused it, Yearout said.
He has letters from the armory of the Sharps Rifle Co. confirming the authenticity of the two buffalo guns, which cost $35 apiece in those early days.
"This gun was shipped to J.G. Dow, Cashier, Bozeman, Mont., July 22, 1878," says the letter dated Sept. 26, 1975. "It is suspected that Dow was buying for Walter Cooper who had gotten into financial difficulties with the Sharps Rifle Co."
Yearout also has a letter from Cooper, dated Sept. 14, 1878.
"My shipment of rifles has not arrived here yet," it says. "The last lot however was landed at Carroll on the 26th of August and was loaded the 28th on wagons for this point and must reach here in less than two weeks.
"They will sell fast," it adds. "I have lots of buyers waiting for them."
Carroll was the landing at Cow Island just below Fort Benton, the farthest the steamboats could venture when the river levels were low.
Yearout isn't sure how the "cowboy artist" came to own the weapons, but he has Cascade County documents 4381 and 4382, dated March 21, 1918, in which Russell declares his ownership of them.
"In 1918, we had a law passed requiring registration of all guns," Yearout explained.
"It required everyone living or working here to register their firearms — even if they were passing through on the train," he said.
The law was a security measure imposed during World War I because of the large number of German citizens in Montana, he said. It was repealed after the Armistice.
Russell listed 11 rifles, four revolvers and one English Sheffield dirk.
The two documents also listed the Sharps and a Winchester, which Yearout later identified through its serial number and purchased.
A retired Air Force major, Yearout bought the county documents about 30 years ago.
"In the 1970s, the county commissioners hired a local man to go into the basement of the courthouse and clear out all the records because they were running out of room," he said. "He was told to get rid of them."
Yearout said the local man offered the papers — weighing about 30 pounds — to the Montana Historical Society and the Cascade County Historical Society, but neither was interested.
"He asked me if I was willing to buy them," Yearout said. "I did, and I have them all still."
There are other records in his possession relating to Russell, he said, without elaborating. Many documents date back to territorial days.
"That's pretty incredible," said Judy Ellinghausen, archivist for the Cascade County Historical Society.
"I'm aware there have been records that have disappeared over the years," she said. "But I wasn't aware that some of them still existed right here."
Those documents make local collector Jim Combs salivate.
"I've heard about those Russell rifles for 40 years, but who can prove it's true?" he asked. "Lew is the only one who has the records.
"And who knows what other Russell rifles are true?" he asked. "Again, he has the only record, and he isn't giving those serial numbers out so the rest of us could try to find one."
Mike Balko, one of the organizers of the Western Collectors and Antique Gun Show, said he had heard Yearout owned several Russell rifles, but he had never seen them.
"They'd be way out of my league," he said.
Due to his old age, Yearout figured it was time to talk about his treasures — but that doesn't mean he's planning to unload them.
"I don't sell anything," Yearout said. "I don't need the money, and if I sold them, I'd miss them."
