'Miracle' museum blends collections into massive display

There are many unusual one-of-a-kind exhibits at the Miracle of America Museum in Polson, but the alien autopsy building just might be the most bizarre collection of memorabilia.

That particular display features a manmade alien — an old movie prop — lying on an autopsy table as other strange-looking beings look on. An assortment of vintage medical equipment from the state hospital at Warm Springs is part of the arrangement.

Whether it’s aliens or mousetraps or a massive logging tow boat, it’s the diversity of the museum’s collections that first strikes visitors. The number of items on display — about 350,000 and growing — is staggering.

The various collections sprawl over 4.5 acres, displayed in 40 buildings. Quite appropriately, the museum is located on Memory Lane.

The mastermind and founder of the Miracle of America Museum is Gil Mangels, who at 73 still spends nearly every minute of every day restoring, improving, cataloging and watching over a collection of American history so large it’s been called “The Smithsonian of the West.”

Mangels lives on the museum grounds. That’s convenient, given that he starts his day between 4 and 5 a.m. and wraps it up in the late evening.

“I just finished this last night about 10 o’clock,” he said, pointing to a 1951 Oliver crawler tractor.

Mangels’ encyclopedic knowledge of the museum’s inventory and his sense of creativity and whimsy are apparent in every nook and cranny. Several of his own artistic creations, such as an interactive display of bells that visitors can chime, are scattered throughout the facility.

He sculpts steel, making whatever he’s inspired to create. A giant rat made to look like the star of “Ratatouille” sits by the dairy building and a metal cactus-like sculpture where visitors can bounce golf balls through a winding course is another oddity among his handmade pieces.

Mangels’ fascination with old things started early in life. One of the first things the Polson native remembers playing with as a child was an antique caster off a piece of furniture. He was 3 when he found an arrowhead on Skidoo Bay on Flathead Lake.

He started collecting things and restoring antique motorcycles at Yellow Bay in the mid-1970s. Eventually his machine and welding business gave way to establishing the museum in the early 1980s.

Mangels’ wife, Joanne, was an integral part of the museum’s operation for decades until her death in 2012.

About a third of the collection has been donated to the nonprofit museum. Mangels still finds a few gems on eBay, though he has tried to curb his addiction to hunting for collectibles.

“I get a kick out of memorabilia,” he said.

Military paraphernalia figures heavily into the museum’s collections, spurred no doubt by Mangels’ own military service. He served three years with the U.S. Army military police.

“We don’t glorify war, but our freedoms are dependent on veterans,” he said.

Among his most prized military memorabilia are the original telegrams and correspondence sent by David Smart to his parents in the days before Pearl Harbor was hit and America entered the second World War. Smart was killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Mangels is equally proud of a display of four generations of military service from the Funke family, including a memorial for Kane Funke, a Marine killed in the Iraq War in 2004.

There is a never-ending list of projects Mangels tackles as time allows. He’s restoring a 1926 Model T Racer. The shoemaker shop needs some tender loving care and there’s about three solid days of work to do in the small building that houses the land office and railroad station. That’s just for starters.

He just finished restoring a 1912

Harley Davidson motorcycle he began working on in the 1970s.

Subject matter for the collections runs the gamut. There’s a barber shop, fully stocked blacksmith shop, a building for old boats, an original 1912 one-room schoolhouse, to name a few.

Although most of the buildings are filled to capacity, Mangels finds it difficult to part with much.

“Once in a while I might trade a duplicate,” he said. “We have too much for our buildings, but I don’t turn much down.”

Mangels declined to put a dollar value on the entire collection. His collection of antique motorcycles alone hovers around $1 million.

“The real value is the joy it brings people and the interaction of the generations of visitors,” he said.

Mangels admits he’s got a soft spot for his motorcycle collection. A 1941 four-cylinder Indian is among his most prized bikes. It cost him the most to restore and it’s worth the most, he said.

“With motorcycles I like the uniqueness, the artistry and the mechanics,” Mangels noted.

Another of his favorites is a wood carving by the late John Clarke, a deaf and mute artist who was world-renowned for his artwork.

“I use this [carving] as an example for the students who come through on school tours, that we shouldn’t let anything hold us back,” he said.

The museum gets a steady flow of visitors, especially during the summer tourist season. In 2014 the museum had 18,000 visitors from all 50 states, all 10 Canadian provinces and 24 foreign countries. The museum has documented visitors from 31 states already this year.

Mangels wishes even more people would visit.

He offers “A Night at the Museum” at 6:30 p.m. the fourth Thursday of the month, a free family-friendly evening of movies, readings and tours. The next evening will be hosted on March 24 when the classic movie, “The Robe” will be chosen “to get us into the true spirit of Easter,” he said.

An endowment fund has been set up with the goal of raising $3 million so that interest from the fund one day will pay for a museum manager. Mangels said about $500,000 already has been raised and is held by the Greater Montana Community Foundation in Helena.

Mangels’ daughter, Cathleen Wilde, and his grandson Art Mangels serve on the museum’s board of directors. Mangels is the board presi

dent.

The museum’s staff is small. There’s a full-time yard and shop employee and three older workers from the Experience Works employment program. Retired Senior Volunteer Program volunteers pitch in here and there.

For the most part, though, the Miracle of America Museum is Mangels’ baby.

“If the place burned down they would find me in the ashes,” he said with a smile.

Miracle of America Museum is located at 36094 Memory Lane in Polson. Go to www.miracleofamericamuseum.com for further information.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.