Hidden Gem (that's Full of Cool Guns): Miracle of America Museum
Tucked along the roadside in Polson, Montana is one of the largest collections of American history in the country – and Guns.com got lost there for a day this summer.
Gil and Joanne Mangels founded the Miracle of America Museum in 1981, with the non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of all that is American. Located near the southern shore of beautiful Flathead Lake, it is closer to Canada than Helena and has an annual traffic of about 18,000 visitors.
This is Gil on his trusty steed. He looks friendly because he is friendly.
The entrance. Yes, that is a miniature Statue of Liberty over the door. Yes, that is a 65-foot diesel-powered tugboat tucked next to the main building. Named the Paul Bunyan, it operated on Flathead Lake towing logs in the 1920s and '30s for the old Great Northern Railway and has long called the museum home. (All photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
A big part of the story of the country involves guns, and the Miracle of America Museum has several hundred of them. How about this 1859 Sharps 4-barrel derringer and an FN Vest Pocket pistol, for starters?
And a rare 1895 Winchester ring carbine in .30-40 Krag.
A S&W break top in among the dozens of 19th-century revolvers on hand.
Along with a more modern Colt Police Positive.
A Revolutionary War exhibit filled with period arms.
Jezel "camel guns," blunderbusses, and dealer cutaway shotgun models all mingle on the museum's shelves, each telling an important story about American trade.
Being Montana, this Sharps made it to the museum logically, as this part of the country is full of old "buffalo" guns.
Many of the old lever guns in the museum bear the marks and carvings of their former owners, now pieces of honest American folk art.
A Great War exhibit including a Pedersen Device-ready Springfield M1903 Mark I.
A circa 1918 DWM-made German MG08 Maxim machine gun captured in France by American troops during World War I and brought back to Montana as a trophy.
The same can be said with a trophy German MG 08/15 "light" machine gun.
The World War II exhibit is filled with about every gun used by the U.S. in the conflict. Note the oversized M1918 BAR training cutaway.
There is also an oversized M1 Carbine cutaway next to a standard model and a folding M1A1.
The same dramatic display of an M1919 light machine gun and its oversized cutaway, with the latter pushing over 10 feet in length.
Allied weapons from the conflict include a PIAT anti-tank projector, Brens, STENs, Enfields, and more.
Which of course includes a Vickers gun.
How about this M1917 water-cooled Browning watching over a series of training mines and a Navy Mark V hard hat dive suit?
There is also no shortage of captured Axis weaponry.
From Italian, Japanese, and German sources.
And militaria, many pieces of it brought back by local vets and passed on to the museum over the years.
Larger ordnance stacked around include an M20 Super Bazooka.
Speaking of ordnance, how many of these can you name?
Gil includes his future home in the collection.
A drivable Ford M20 Armored Utility Car, complete with Ma Deuce, graces a corner.
Along with a quad-50 Maxson "Meat Chopper."
When it comes to Air Force relics, there are rooms and displays dedicated to the story of bomber gunners, including a Remington Model 11 mockup used for training.
And an ANM2 machine gun of the sort used in a B-17, along with period flight jackets and equipment.
The principal facility contains more than 70 classic motorcycles dating back to the 1900s. Several are military variants to include a German BMW and a few Harleys from WWII.
As well as a Cushman motor scooter pulling a machine gun trailer including an M1919 Browning.
A room filled with the bicycles of yesteryear includes military bikes from Germany (shown), Japan, and a rare 1941 Columbia Compax collapsible bicycle developed for American paratroopers.
The grounds contain several aircraft, including a circa 1971 USAF A-7D Corsair strike bomber, a Navy T-33B trainer, the nose of a F-4 Phantom, four helicopters, and at least three different Cessna Bird Dogs.
A battery of mixed field artillery could be gathered up with ease.
There is even a replica Billinghurst Battery gun, an early Civil War-era rapid-fire gun invented by Dr. Josephus Requa – a dentist of all things – that could fire as many as 175 rounds per minute.
The campus includes more than 40 buildings in what Gill terms its "Pioneer Village." Most are decades old and were donated from old homesteads or removed from ghost towns.
They have been repurposed into dozens of "mini-museums" dedicated to specific Americana. For instance, one is filled with racks of early WWII-era outboard motors, and another with vintage barber chairs and equipment.
One is a motel. Another a jailhouse. Hidden in one building is an alien autopsy.
One of the buildings is "Elmer's Gunsmith Shop," which houses the life-long work and collection of Elmer Johnston of Mattawa, Washington. His desks and benches look like he could walk in at any time and get back to work. Also, tell me you see the Nock Volley Gun...
A Korean War-era Army vet who served as a small arms repair section chief while in the service, Johnston spent decades acquiring, crafting, and fixing guns, including the in-house custom fabrication of everything from barrels and stocks to springs and locks.
Elmer's includes several rare "pocket" guns including a James Reid-made "My Friend" ring gun.
The story of progress through matchlocks and wheellocks to flintlocks is told.
Note the array of old rolling block Remington and Springfield rifles, including one with a rare spade bayonet.
A gun rack that looks right out of an 1890s Montana ranch.
As well as a rack full of 1819 Hall rifles.
How many of these wheelguns can you name?
Vintage popguns.
Tucked in one building are electrical panels and a mockup of a ship's service motor generator from the old San Diego naval base specific to Los Angeles class hunter-killer submarines.
Macro exhibits on the grounds, besides some 40 antique cars and trucks, also include 30 military vehicles of all stripes such as an M3 half-track, M29 Weasel, a huge DUKW six-wheeled amphibian, M113 armored personnel carrier, and a seldom-preserved circa 1943 International Harvester M5 13-ton prime mover for a 155mm howitzer.
You have to love this M274 Mule with a starlight-scope-equipped 106mm recoilless rifle. Talk about a mule with a kick!
There are barns filled with old Sno-Cats and tractors, many used in agriculture in the Polson region – sugar beets were popular for a time – while a number of the tracked vehicles saw service at nearby Glacier National Park going back to the 1930s.
And industrial art can be found everywhere.
There is something for every age and interest at the Museum of America. If you are ever anywhere, even remotely close enough to stop in, you'll thank yourself later. And when you see Gill, be sure to shake his hand.
