These Polsons really liked Polson
Editor,
It's been truly said over the years, better late than never, and even more so when it involves an overdue "thank you" to an entire town. You see, we had heard that there was a town in Montana, named "Polson," which is our last name as you can see below. Due to the distance from our home in Northern California, we could never take a "field trip" just to see the town.
However, when our vacation plans took us to the Glacier Park area, we quickly found the town of Polson on the map and included it in our itinerary. Vacations being, by definition, limited in time, we crossed our fingers that the time would be well spent, and that the town would be at least a pleasant place to see.
So it was that on a warm, sunny Sunday in mid-August, our rig rolled through your town, cameras ready to capture images of "all things Polson." The plan was to just keep moving if there wasn't much there — a plan shelved as we experienced the delight and hospitality of your lovely little town, its picturesque lake-side locale and the friendly people.
Upon seeing and flagging down a Polson Fire Dept. pickup truck for a photo, we were stunned that the driver, Terry Gembala invited us back to the station to see the new fire engine. It got better when he indulged our penchant for way more photos than we needed of the rigs, the boat, Terry in the engine, with me, with my wife … you get the idea.
We were both impressed to learn that the unique weather-protected control area was designed by Terry as it was not an "off the shelf" option. He told us to come back the next day and that Chief Tom Maloney would be expecting us and might have some "Polson Fire Department" T-shirts for us.
He also tipped us to the memorable Glacier Brewery and their wonderful fresh root beer, stouts, ales, etc. The cherry ale was an especially nice seasonal flavor; we took our fair share back to the campsite, too.
We took a couple of bottles of Port Polson Pilsner with us so we could toast our visit when we got back home. We had to split them three ways with our firefighter niece as we presented her with a gift of one of the T-shirts we bought that Monday from Chief Maloney.
Another highlight on Monday was the (too few) hours we spent absorbing the rich history in the Flathead-Polson Museum.
A very friendly lady helped direct us to many of the displays, photos, stories and the remarkable original trading post out back. Our thanks to her, though we can't remember her name.
A visit to the Chamber of Commerce and another friendly lady helped us to learn more, including the size of the lake, which was said to be the largest freshwater body west of the Mississippi. I wondered if it could really be larger than Lake Tahoe, but have found out it's true!
One of our last memories was the scrumptious meal we had at Fiesta en Jalisco. It gave us a chuckle when the waiter, after finding out our name, began calling me "Mr. Polson."
To all of the people we visited with, who were all so friendly to us, and whose names are lost to us now, know that you all made us feel at home and can look forward to another visit as soon as we can arrange it.
Don and Barbara Polson
Red Bluff, Calif.