By Zoe Rose
One of Cascade, Montana’s most famous residents, Stagecoach Mary Fields, was honored on Sept. 26, 2026, with a ceremony for the dedication of a monument and a mural located in the community where she spent the last twenty years of her life. The event drew more than 100 people from a variety of Montana cities as well as visitors from Pennsylvania, Kansas, Oregon, Idaho and Nevada. Speakers for the ceremony included Frank LaLiberty, Shannon Newth, Norma Ashby Smith and Channing J. Hartelius.
Fields, an honoree in the National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame, had also earned a Star on the Texas Trail Hall of Fame, was inducted into the Montana Cowboy and Black Cowboy Halls of Fame, was the first Black woman to be employed as a U.S. Star Route mail carrier, was portrayed in TV movies and documentaries, and was lauded by Western movie star Gary Cooper as “…one of the freest souls ever to draw a breath…”
It took the hard work and dedication of the Mary Fields Statue Committee, founded in 2022 by Frank LaLiberty, to honor the Montana legend. Members included Mavis Peterson, Marjorie Pribyl, Shannon Wilson, Channing Hartelius and Beverly Caldwell, as well as the late Cheryl Hutchinson.
The monument was funded by a variety of events over the four years it took to raise enough money. Committee member Beverly Caldwell says fundraising events were sometimes held in March, Fields’ birthday month. “Mary was known for often giving flowers from her beloved garden, and so one time we sold flowers and asked for donations, another time we raffled off a basket of books about Montana,” says Beverly. “Then we came up with the idea to create a booklet featuring businesses on Main Street in Cascade, and that brought in some more money.” The committee also applied for an AARP grant but when they learned that they would have to have $1 million dollars in liability insurance, they had to pass on that plan.
“It was a struggle at times, but we did it,” she says. ““It was more than time for the town of Cascade to honor Mary. This is where she lived, where she was so well liked and this is her final resting place,” said Beverly. “We all worked so hard to get this tribute to one of Montana’s legends.” The Stagecoach Mary Fields monument, created by Fort Benton artist Jim O’Hara, is located near the bridge on Cascade’s east side on property donated by the Kurt Henneford family.
Besides the monument, there is an impressive accompanying mural, created by Conrad artist Jim Destaffany, who had another Conrad resident, Andrew Fowler, help with the actual painting. The mural covers the east wall of a former bank building, and was funded by Caldwell, who has a great admiration for the six-foot-tall, 200-pound Black woman who ran the stagecoach line and delivered the 17-mile Star Route mail from Cascade to St. Peter’s Mission, toting a shotgun to ward off bandits and wolves. “I heard one morning on the radio that Great Falls has sixty-six murals, and now Cascade has one, and I am so proud I was able to finance it,” said Beverly.
Born into slavery, the newly emancipated, Mary worked on Mississippi River steamboats for a while, was a washerwoman and then a servant. She ended up in Toledo, Ohio, where she became friends with Mother Amadeus, a Roman Catholic nun and founder of the Ursuline Missions of Montana and Alaska. Mary followed Mother Amadeus to Montana and St. Peter’s Mission, about ten miles from Cascade. When a ruckus with a groundskeeper got Mary expelled from the mission, Mother Amadeus made sure Mary had a place to live and earn a living in Cascade. One of her jobs included babysitting the then- resident and future Hollywood actor Gary Cooper.
Known for her fondness for cigars, whiskey and lively conversations, she was a popular figure in the town and earned the privilege of being the only woman to be allowed in the town’s local saloons. A big fan of the local baseball team, Mary was named as the official mascot. Cascade schools were closed on her birthdays and when she died at the age of 82, Mary’s funeral was one of the largest to ever take place in Cascade.
Fields, who broke barriers of race, gender, and age, once described herself. “…I do bold and exciting things, I am independent, nobody tells me what to do or where to go. I like being me.”