Miracle of America Museum: Unique. Funky. Amazing!

When it comes to viewing Americana, I don't know of any place better to see it than at the Miracle of America Museum in Polson, Montana.

There is more "stuff" in this sprawling roadside showcase of American culture than in any other museum I have ever visited. It's a hodgepodge collection that co-founder Gil Mangels says documents America "from the walking plow to walking on the Moon." It is also, he says, "a celebration of the benefits of the free enterprise system."

It sprawls over several acres along U.S. Highway 93 on the south edge of town.

One minute the museum is serious, with patriotic exhibits of World War II; displays of antique motorcycles, cars and tractors; an old one-room schoolhouse and a shrine to Thomas Edison and his contributions to America. Then there's the weird stuff —  a two headed cow, "an official U.S. government cover-up tool" (a fold-up Army shovel) and assorted flying saucers and rockets. A new exhibit, the Alien Autopsy Lab, is complete with an alien sprawled out on a medical examination table, looking very much like those in the secret films from the infamous Roswell, NM, spaceship crash in the late 1940s.

The museum was founded in 1981 by Gil Mangels and his late-wife Joanne. Gil carries on today, running the show and deciding how to expand the already giant collection of memorabilia. If you visit, say "hi" and thank him for his years of dedicated work.

I could go on and on, but instead here's a three-minute video I put together of my visit in July, 2015. It explains a lot better what's at the museum than I could put into words.

Admission is $6, worth every penny and then some. It's less for kids.

More Small Town Crime

Interesting news reports from small town newspapers

Here are a few items from the police blotter in the Flathead Beacon of Kalispell, Montana.


•A resident on Lost Creek Lane reported that the neighbor's horse is loose and destroying his yard.

• (An hour later): A man on Lost Creek Road slated that his horses are loose and the neighbor man threatened to shoot them.

•A concerned citizen reported that a man in a poncho had his hands in his pockets.

•A somewhat infamous white Chihuahua was loose and doing bad dog things in Somers. Apparently, this is a daily event.

•Under suspicious circumstances, one female goat has gone missing from her pen on Willow Glen Drive.

•A West Glacier woman reported that two known chicken killers were outside chasing her cats.

•An Airport Road resident reported that a chicken wandered into her yard and, at the time of the call, was acting very strange.

•A Bigfork resident claimed that someone left a tree on his property last night.

•A Kelly Road resident reported that a trampoline flew into his yard and smashed his truck.

•A husky turned himself in after a highly destructive chicken killing spree on Alpine Lane.

•A woman called from Foys Lake to report that a large, drunken man stumbled and fell on top of her daughter.

Small town crime: July 12, 2015

Interesting news reports from small town newspapers


Here are a few items from the police blotter in the July 12 edition of the Flathead Beacon of Kalispell, Montana.

•A woman on Harmony Road reported that her house smelled bad. She suspects the smell is related to her neighbor's pig.

•A Kalispell man complained that his ex-girlfriend knows the combination to his lock and breaks into his house when she comes to town. He was advised to change his locks.

•Six cows were spotted standing in the park and ride off Highway 82.

•A dog that was certainly not large, but too big to be considered small and too small to be considered medium-sized was loose in the area of Conrad Drive.

•A purple-faced woman in a pink hat was seen wandering down River Place. She was gone when a deputy drove through the area.

•A black cow was seen standing on Tamarack Lane in Columbia Falls.

One-of-a-kind motorhome on display in Polson, Montana

You won’t see another motorhome like this one, which I found at the wonderful Miracle of America Museum in Polson, Montana. The plan is to eventually restore it. For now it just sits.

It was built by Marshal Sanders of Highland, Michigan in the late 1960s out of a bunch of other vehicles. It’s powered by a 1966 Olds Tornado engine with front wheel drive. The front of the motorhome is from a GMC truck. The grill and front bumper is from a Pontiac. In back, the taillights are from a 1959 Ford.

Marshal had a big problem when he first drove the motorhome: when he turned the steering wheel left, the RV went right. Not good. But it was not a problem that couldn’t be solved, which Marshal did with a bellcrank.

GMC had the same problem when it was developing its motorhomes. To figure out what to do, GMC representatives visited Marshal to see his solution. They liked it so much they copied it for their own RVs.

High in the sky, VW Bug and trailer advertise RV park

It's hard to drive past the Glacier Peaks RV Park without noticing it. It's along Montana Route 40 between Whitefish and Columbia Falls, 30-minutes southwest of Glacier National Park.

You don't necessarily notice the park's sign. But you do notice the creatively painted VW Bug and travel trailer perched high above the entrance. They've been there for about 18 years.

Helen and Harold McLouth bought the RV park in 1995. A few years later Harold found the VW at a wrecking yard, headed to the crusher. He asked about buying it. But it was his lucky day: he got it for free, its parts long gone.

The 60s-era Layton trailer came shortly thereafter. It was owned by a Columbia Falls artist who had painted it with cartoon characters "Huck L Berry" and two pals, with the message "Enjoy Montana."

Helen and Harold owned a forklift so after Harold (better known as Butch) built the support structure, they hoisted up the Bug and trailer. Helen had already painted the car. "They were up in 10 minutes," said Helen, who operates the park herself these days. Harold passed away 10 years ago.

NOT LONG AFTER IT WAS UP, the county planning commission ordered it down. "It's an eyesore and not code compliant" it said in so many words.

Harold was steaming mad. He and Helen went to the commission's next meeting. Harold said they would not take the car and trailer down and if the county didn't back off he'd sue. He wasn't kidding. His lawyer sent a letter threatening a $150,000 lawsuit.

The planning commission responded: "Okay, you can keep it. . . for now."

Nearly two decades later it's still there, still attracting gawkers, photographers and customers.

The park is located at 3185 Highway 40 West in Columbia Falls.

Superstitions about death and dying

Here are a few superstitions about death and dying that I learned about from a pamphlet at the Missoula Cemetery.

PASSING A CEMETERY: A person must hold their breath when passing a cemetery or they will breathe in the spirit of someone who recently died. Tuck your thumbs into your fists when passing a cemetery to protect your parents.

MIRRORS in the house with a corpse should be covered or the person who sees himself will die next. If a mirror should fall from the wall and breaks itself then someone in the house will die soon.

EYE TWITCHING: If a person's left eye twitches there will soon be a death in the family.

THUNDER following a funeral means the person's soul has reached heaven.

PREGNANT WOMEN attending a funeral who walk on the grave will result in a child born with club feet.

PHOTOGRAPH: If three people are photographed together the one in the middle will die first.

REMOVING A CORPSE: A corpse should be removed from the house feet first to prevent their spirit from looking back into the house and beckoning another member of the family to follow.

CURES: Being near or in an open grave cures all manner of illnesses including toothache, boils and incontinence.

WITCH: A witch must be buried face down to prevent the community further supernatural spells. If this doesn't work, unbury them and turn their clothes inside out, then re-bury them face down. This should do the trick.

DOG HOWLING: If a dog howls three times it means someone is going to die. If a dog howls at night when someone in the house is sick it is a bad omen. This omen can be reversed by reaching under the bed and turning over a shoe.

BELLS ON A GRAVE (This is actually true): The fear of someone being being buried alive led coffin makers to design caskets with an internal chain attached to a bell on the grave. If the person should awake they would pull the bell and alert the community to their premature burial. Hence the saying "Saved by the bell."

SHOES ON THE TABLE: Leaving shoes on the table will bring sickness and possibly death by hanging.

TOUCHING THE DECEASED: If you touch a loved one who has died you won't have dreams about them.

MAZES were placed at some cemetery entrances to prevent spirits from returning to the world as it was known that ghosts could only travel in a straight line.

(Researched by Mary Ellen Stubb, Missoula Cemetery Sexton)

A visit with Sky King

If you know what I am referring to when I mention "Sky King," then you are probably at least 60 years old. 

Sky King was a TV series that ran off and on from 1951 to 1962, about a modern day cowboy who didn't ride a horse, but an airplane. Kirby played an Arizona rancher who fought bad guys and rescued people in trouble with his twin-engine Cessna.

The show starred Kirby Grant, who I learned yesterday at the Museum of Mountain Flying at the Missoula airport, was born in Butte, Montana. He is buried in a family plot in Missoula.

Like many little boys of my generation, I loved the old black and white TV shows about cowboys — Roy Rogers, the Lone Ranger, Hopalong Cassidy, Gene Autry, the Cisco Kid. Just thinking of those guys makes me feel warm and fuzzy and happy. They were all good guys —fighting a never-ending battle with thugs and outlaws, always winning, but never shooting anybody. When they fired their guns it was almost always when racing after a desperado on horseback (never hitting him) or, more likely, shooting the gun out of the bad guy's hand.

Kirby Grant, I learned yesterday, was really Kirby Grant Hoon. The show Sky King was his claim to fame, although he appeared in a few dozen B movies. Early in his life he played violin and even led a dance band. After Sky King, he bought and traveled with a circus. Sadly, he died in 1985 at age 74 in a car accident while on the way to a Space Shuttle launch where he was to be honored by astronauts for his contributions to aviation and space flight.

I enjoyed visiting Kirby yesterday. I stood at his grave for awhile and thought about all the hours he had entertained me as a little boy. I thanked him. I felt a bit sad as I drove off, reminded once again that all my childhood TV heroes are now gone.

If you are in Missoula and would like to pay tribute to "Sky," he's at the Missoula City Cemetery just a half-mile off I-90. Just park at the cemetery office and turn around. He's right on the front row beneath a big shade tree.

If you never saw Sky King when it was on TV, you are in luck. You can watch a full episode on YouTube by clicking here.