Miss Montana lifts spirits and raises funds for local library

“If this airplane could talk the stories she could tell …”

As families climbed aboard the shiny silver bird, sat in its cockpit and admired its red-tipped propellers and frisky Miss Montana logo, author and pilot Bryan Douglass recounted the DC-3’s resurrection to a rapt audience seated in a hangar at the Polson airport.

The plane that had flown to Normandy and back for the 75th anniversary of D-Day in 2019 and dropped 15 smokejumpers on the deadly Mann Gulch fire near Helena in 1949 winged its way to Polson Saturday for a fundraiser for the North Lake County Library Foundation.

Douglass, author of “Every Reason to Fail, The Unlikely Story of Miss Montana and the D-Day Squadron,” told the audience that aviation and libraries have something in common.

“There’s a saying in aviation that a mile of road will take you a mile, and a mile of runway will take you anywhere in the world,” he said. “I would add that 10,000 square feet of library will take you anywhere in time, anywhere in the universe.”

Miss Montana’s visit was not only its first landing at the Polson airport, it also marked “the first time we’ve taken Miss Montana to an event like this to support a nonprofit,” Douglass said. “We should do it at least once a year.”

The plane was proclaimed Montana’s airplane in May by Gov. Greg Gianforte “by virtue of her long history and service” and is owned by the nonprofit Museum of Mountain Flying in Missoula. “There are really no contenders – she belongs to the state, is owned by a nonprofit – we need to share that.”

Douglass also spoke of his own passion for books, describing himself as a lifelong reader whose first form of identification was a library card. “I’m a little old school,” he confessed. “I love having a book in my hands. I love the feel and smell of paper books.”

He added that writing a book about Miss Montana “has been almost as much fun as restoring that airplane and flying it to Europe and back.”

The most remarkable aspect of that adventure was the community it brought together to restore the plane in time to join the D-Day anniversary.

“We had to raise a half a million in less than a year, get the engines rebuilt and the props rebuilt and basically go over that thing from nose to tail and wingtip to wingtip,” he said. When the crew headed to Europe, they had just six hours on the rebuilt plane “and took a circuitous route across the United States to get more hours on it before we went across the cold gray North Atlantic.”

The effort was worth it, he said, “to honor and commemorate the men who fought and died at Normandy and in World War II. But our history, our street cred came from Mann Gulch – so we were also honoring smoke jumpers, World War II paratroopers, jumpers of all kinds and first responders – basically anybody who is putting themselves out there for the safety and wellbeing of our common community.”

“Our biggest takeaway is we hoped it would inspire people do something worthwhile, even if it seems impossible,” he added – like raising $2.3 million to expand the local library.

Since the plane has returned to its home at the museum, Douglass continues to find inspiration in the kids who – as they did Saturday – swarmed the plane, mesmerized by its size, shape and, when it takes flight, the sounds and sight of it lumbering down the runway.

“One of the things that keeps me working on, and flying, that airplane is when a young person gets on board and sees those engines start and they belch and fart fire,” he said. “That inspires a kid because they can smell it and hear it and feel it – it’s a living thing that’s almost 80 years old.”

As Douglass noted, “The other takeaway from this experience is try to say ‘yes’ when somebody offers something wholesome and healthy. It’s amazing the things that come out of it.”

According to Connie Brownell, president of the North Lake County Library Foundation, Saturday’s benefit nudged the Next Chapter Campaign about $11,500 closer to its goal of raising $2.3 million. To contribute or say “yes,” head to polsonlibraryfoundation.org.