Museum needs help with photos of old Glacier Park rigs

When Gil Mangels was 3-years-old he was playing on the beach at Skidoo Bay and he found an interesting looking rock. He showed it to his mom and she said he should keep it. It was a Native American arrowhead.

Mangels has been collecting stuff ever since.

"My dad used to bawl me out for dragging stuff home," he said.

Twenty five years later Mangels is still dragging stuff home to his Miracle of America Museum in Polson. The Museum, among other things, houses hundreds of items of Glacier Park memorabilia, dating back to 1917.

Included in the stuff are four old rigs which were used in the Park — a maintenance shop-built sno-crawler with a 1939 Ford flathead V-8 engine and other auto components, a 1941 Ford two-ton truck rotary snow plow, and a 1952 Tucker snow cat.

He also has a rare 1942 Ford ambulance with a small red cross and seal of the city of Cut Bank on it that may or may not have been in the Park.

Whatever the case, Mangels is hoping someone out there has photos of one or more of these rigs in action in Glacier.

He's already scoured the Park's archives and asked around, now he's hoping for help from the viewing public.

The photos will be part of a centennial display the museum has planned this spring and summer. Officialy sanctioned by the Park, the display will include the above-mentioned rigs as well as other Glacier Park historical artifacts on display.

Mangels said he plans of having a live demonstration of the rigs on April 22 starting at 6:30 p.m. at the Museum.

Folks who may have photos of the rigs can contact him at the museum at (406) 883-6264.