POLSON, Mont. — You’ll find an alien autopsy underway, a World War II German-issued children’s gas mask, hundreds of mouse traps, dozens of rare vehicles and hundreds of thousands of other items at a roadside museum as unique as its collection.
While most museums focus on a type of art, a time in history or a specific location, the Miracle of America Museum takes a decidedly different approach.
Visitors wind through the history of America, from the stone age to the jet age. And every nook and cranny is packed to the rafters.
If founder Gil Mangels has done his job right, museumgoers leave with a valuable lesson in civic responsibility.
“I like to stress the importance of the free enterprise concept guaranteed by the Constitution which accounts for the thousands of items we have on display,” Mangels said. “A lot of people are not expecting a freedom message in a museum.”
Defying expectations is precisely the point.
When Mangels opened the doors to this quirky roadside attraction in the 1980s, he wanted others to share the realization he felt while visiting then-divided Berlin in the 1960s after completing a three-year stint as a military policeman in the U.S. Army.
“Viewing the difference between free West Berlin and communist-controlled East Berlin woke me up to how precious and fragile our freedoms are and that played a good part of our message here at the museum,” Mangels said.
A Museum With A Message
Located just south of Polson near the lapping shore of Flathead Lake, the museum is located just off the busy U.S. Highway 93 that connects millions of tourists each year with Glacier National Park and other Montana attractions.
Mangels personally greets visitors that flock to the museum from as many as 52 countries and all 50 states. About 18,000 visitors come through in a single year — a number that, by the way, he thinks should be at least 10 times larger.
Many of these visitors have posted online reviews marveling at the quantity of items on display, while others have complained about a dusty collection they don’t deem museum-worthy.
Mangels knows what his critics have to say, and he even agrees with some of their gripes. Were it up to him, every display would be housed in a room twice as large, which might afford more room for tidying up.
“You can’t let just anyone come in and dust,” he said.
But Mangels does push back on assertions that the museum might be a hoarder’s paradise, and he has responded in the past to criticism that some of the displays are racist.
He also doesn’t shy away from topics that might seem unusual in a museum — like a memorial to victims of DUI accidents tucked away in a corner or displays touching on the dangers of smoking and drugs.
But mostly the museum is intended to celebrate the “miracle” of the country’s transformation in the nearly 250 years since the Constitution was ratified, which inspired its name.
“We’re trying to re-instill belief in America,” Mangels said.
Mangels’ (Potential) Millions
Walking room to room through the museum, Mangels might offer up a little backstory of how one-of-a-kind items came into his hands or point out the items that hold special significance.
Take, for example, the first rifle Mangels got at the age of 15 for deer hunting that can be found in the museum’s Second Amendment display.
Occupying nearly every inch of a main museum building, plus more than a dozen smaller structures and displays scattered across a large yard totaling about 4.5 acres, some visitors have guesstimated the museum’s collection numbers at least 1 million, though Mangels, for his part, has never had any inclination to do an exhaustive count.
Plus, space is constantly being made for new additions to the museum, like a recently added display of dog sleds that competed in Montana’s annual Race to the Sky sled dog event.
Even if some of the displays are “way too crowded,” Mangels is loath to part with anything because he said the collection is what brings visitors to the museum in the first place.
“There are larger motorcycle museums in the nation, there are larger military museums in the nation, and larger this and that in the nation, but they don't have the variety, the diversity that we have,” Mangels said. “We've had a lot of people say they've liked us better than other major attractions like the Smithsonian.”
‘Everything Has A Price’
But something peculiar does happen at Mangels’ museum that may not happen elsewhere when people insist on trying to buy items.
Among the biggest heartbreakers for these sorts of visitors are a circa 1940s four-car auto transport (dubbed the “Big Boys Tonka Toy”), a particularly valuable four-cylinder Indian motorcycle, and a Gar Wood runabout boat that was owned by Marcus Daly III, grandson of Montana’s famed Copper King.
One Florida tourist, who’d seen a photo of the boat, was intent on buying it — “everything has a price,” as the tourist said — even though nothing in the museum is for sale, save for items in a small gift shop.
Mangels retorted that the boat was donated to the museum and honoring that donation was something that no amount of money would change.
“He couldn't understand, he wanted to leave me his business card,” Mangels said. “I wouldn't accept it.”
A 1939 John Deere tractor at the Miracle of America Museum in Polson, Montana. (Courtesy Miracle of America Museum) 
Unique wheel lock firearms on a wall at the Miracle of America Museum in Polson, Montana. (Courtesy Miracle of America Museum) 
Civil War experimental rifles. (Courtesy Miracle of America Museum) 
A display of rifles that shows the evolution of firearms. (Courtesy Miracle of America Museum) 
An old Farmall tractor at the Miracle of America Museum in Polson, Montana. (Courtesy Miracle of America Museum) 
A Frick steram engine. (Courtesy Miracle of America Museum) 
A collection of old oil and gas cans at the Miracle of America Museum in Polson, Montana. (Courtesy Miracle of America Museum) 
Items that belong in an old general store are packed into this area at the Miracle of America Museum in Polson, Montana. (Courtesy Miracle of America Museum) 
An old Standard station on the grounds of the Miracle of America Museum. (Courtesy Miracle of America Museum) 
Items that show the Old West heritage. (Courtesy Miracle of America Museum) 
A collection of vintage pistols. (Courtesy Miracle of America Museum) 
Revolutionary War arms at the Miracle of America Museum in Polson, Montana. (Courtesy Miracle of America Museum) 
Teddy Roosevelt's saddle. (Courtesy Miracle of America Museum) 
A wagon with original hardware holding it together. (Courtesy Miracle of America Museum)
Making The Miracle
Mangels was bitten by the collecting bug early.
Growing up on a seed potato farm near Polson, he said he was always interested in antiques and began collecting by dragging old horseshoes or wrenches he might find at his grandparents’ home back to the farm “much to my dad’s chagrin.”
After his stint in the Army, Mangels returned home to Montana, and when he tired of farming, he went into business as a machinist and welder in nearby Yellow Bay and continued collecting.
“I would run across intriguing, ingenious pieces of machinery or tools,” he said.
A museum proved to be a good repository for Mangels’ growing collection of motorcycles, military vehicles, and all sorts of other “neat things to have” items he’d amassed. It also put purpose to his passion.
Now that the collection has swelled, Mangels is more selective about what he’ll acquire, though items have a way of finding their way to Polson that are “perfect” for sharing the museum’s message about the greatness of America.
He might consider a duplicate item if it’s an upgrade, while a rare item is always an attractive addition to the collection. But if someone walks in looking to unload grandmother’s old sewing machine or grandfather’s old typewriter, well, that’s when some restraint is warranted.
“We about have enough of those,” Mangels said. “However, it doesn’t mean that I don’t want to look at it and see if it’s a duplicate if they’re on their way to the dump.”
Speaking of the dump, that’s been a pretty good spot to collect items, though salvaging is discouraged these days. But one man’s trash can be another’s treasure, especially for Mangels, whose background as a machinist and welder comes in handy in restoring items.
Among the Mangels-restored items on display are a 1920 Ford Model TT truck and a 1912 Harley-Davidson motorcycle that took him nearly 40 years to track down the necessary parts to fully restore.
When he finished the restoration about five years ago, he finally had an opportunity to take the bike for a ride, when he was well into his 70s.
“Pretty scary,” Mangels recalled of the ride.
Bridging Generations
Part of what people love so much, said Mangels, is the museum isn’t sterile and there’s a healthy dose of whimsy mixed in.
Look no further than the UFO section of the yard, which he said generates a lot of interest among visitors young and old.
Families with as many as five generations have visited the museum, and it’s not uncommon for people who visited as children to return with their children, he said.
What began as a part-time endeavor morphed into his life's passion, one Mangels shared with his first wife until she died in 2012 and now with his second wife, Helen.
Mangels has never drawn a salary from the museum and it's mostly self-run, though he occasionally hires people to help staff the front desk or for handy work around the yards.
Thanks to an on-site apartment and being largely self-run, Mangels doesn't have to deal with some of the typical hassles, like a commute or managing employees.
Still, being at the museum every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. — whether visitors to the area trickle in or drive past — can be a slog at times, he admits, making it a labor of love.
Come July, Mangels will hand over much of the day-to-day museum work to one of his granddaughters who has previously helped out at the museum. But Mangels doesn’t have any intention of going far.
On display in the military section is the brass artillery shell that will someday hold Mangels’ ashes.
“I won’t feel cramped,” he said.
If You Go
What: Miracle of America Museum
Where: 36094 Memory Lane, Polson, Montana
When: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily
Cost: Admission $10 for adults, children ages 2-12 $5, younger kids free
Online: miracleofamericamuseum.org
Contact: 406-883-6804
