Scottsdale's Museum of the West

Yesterday, we visited this museum, which opened just a year ago or so.

Much of the museum's collection is art work, and as one who loves western art, I thoroughly enjoyed it. You can visit the museum's web site by clicking here. One of the current exhibits is entitled Inspirational Journey: The Story of Lewis and Clark Featuring the Artwork of Charles Fitz. Over 100 of the artist's paintings are displayed in order of their depictions of the events over the course of the Lewis and Clark exploration of the Missouri River and points further northwest in our country. For those of us from Iowa, this painting, which shows a burial procession for Sergeant  Charles Floyd, might be especially meaningful. Floyd was the only person who died during the expedition, and that happened near Sioux City. The Sergeant Floyd Monument sits high above the Missouri River south of the town.

Numerous other western artists have work on exhibit in the museum.

Many are paintings and sculptures.

There is also a fine collection of tack, rodeo memorabilia, western entertainment artifacts, and, of course, old firearms and related holsters, scabbards, and other accessories.

One of my favorite paintings was this one by Bev Doolittle, entitled Unknown Presence. The artist has some information about the painting here.