Jay Joseph Contway to be honored By C.M. Russell Museum and Cowboy Hall of Fame

From C.M. Russell Museum

GREAT FALLS - Friday, Sept. 6, in Great Falls, the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame and the C.M. Russell Museum will celebrate the second "Saddle of Honor" to be awarded to a famous Montana cowboy.

This year's recipient will be "Montana's Storyteller in Bronze," Jay Joseph Contway of Great Falls.

Contway has spent a lifetime creating western sculpture. His knowledge and respect for the working cowboy shows clearly in his art. Appreciation for the history, his own native ancestry and the people and animals of the West is clearly illustrated in his sculpture. Contway was inducted into the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2015. Contway will join last year's Saddle of Honor recipient Charles M. Russell.

Open to the public, the "Saddle of Honor" event begins at noon with a chuck wagon barbeque in the Russell Rider Sculpture Garden, at the C.M. Russell Museum. The award presentation will follow.

The event is part of a pilot project currently taking place between the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame and the C.M. Russell Museum to find a home for all honorees of the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame.

Following the ceremony, the museum will be open to the public to view the landmark exhibition "Return to Calgary: Charles M. Russell and the 1919 Victory Stampede."

The C.M. Russell Museum will unveil its fall exhibition, "O.C. Seltzer's West," from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.  Ticketed attendees of the Saddle of Honor event are also invited to join.

Both organizations share the mission of honoring the Montana cowboy as integral to defining the values of the "Soul of the American West."

Tickets to the chuck wagon barbeque are $20 each or $15 for C.M. Russell Museum and Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame members. Please call Jessica Nebel, C.M. Russell Museum executive assistant, at 406-727-1939 by Thursday, Aug. 29, to RSVP and purchase tickets.