Model T tour visits Miracle of America Museum
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POLSON — Nearly one hundred Model T Fords of many vintages wheeled into the Miracle of America Museum last Thursday in Polson on Aug. 5.
The Model T’s were part of the Montana Majestic Mountain T Tour, of the Model T Ford Club of America.
Between noon to 1 p.m., Harry Fritsch, who was counting from the deck of the Paul Bunyan boat high above the museum grounds, tallied about 94 Model T’s.
Joanne and Gil Mangels, founders of the Miracle of America Museum, are members of the Model T Ford of America Club and heard the club was planning a Montana Majestic Mountain T Tour of Glacier Park. The Mangels contacted the club a year ago and suggested they spend a day at the museum.
The museum was added as a day trip for the tour, which headquartered at the Whitefish Resort in Whitefish. On Monday, Aug. 2 the group visited Eureka, and some tour members drove on into Canada. The tour drove the Going to the Sun Highway in Glacier Park on Tuesday. Wednesday, Aug. 4, was car show day for the Model T’s at DePratu Ford Volkswagen in Whitefish, followed by a Thursday jaunt to the Miracle of America Museum. Friday the tour hit the back roads headed for Big Fork.
Gene Jacobsen and Charles May and their wives came to take a look at the Model T’s. The Mays and the Jacobsens are from Brigham City, Utah, and were marveling at the work that had gone into restoring the vehicles, many with wooden-spoked wheels.
Finley Point resident Jim Cole also came into town to see the cars. Before he retired in 1975, Cole was a policeman in Missoula and “dreamed about Model T’s instead of girls” when he was younger. At present, he’s restoring his own ’23 Model T touring car, and the sight of all those Model T’s inspired him.
Tour members Richard and Joy Eagle drove their 1909 Model T from Idaho Falls, although Richard said many people from farther away pull their cars on a trailer to the tour hub.
Eagles were traveling with their two-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter, who’s “a good little traveler,” according to Richard.
The Eagles have been members of the Model T club since 1966, and Richard has been restoring cars since he was 14.
The Eagles and other Model T tour members, some 284 visitors, swarmed the Miracle of America Museum exhibits and grounds, enjoying memorabilia, some from a simpler time when their Model T cars were the norm.
