Live History Days ups museum's ante

Pickups, SUVs and cars lined Memory Lane in front of the Miracle of America Museum last weekend for Live History Days.

The Polson museum is a four-acre treasure chest of American history. Visitors can’t begin to see all the exhibits in just one visit. And the annual Live History Days ups the ante.

Dez Gashler, assistant CEO, was working at the ticket counter Sunday and told visitors that professionals were on hand to demonstrate skills from the “good old days.”

Gashler is Gil Mangels’ granddaughter. When Gil retires (and he has no plan for retiring), Gashler will take over running the MOAM. But on Sunday, she was enthusiastically helping people navigate the grounds and suggesting displays for them to see.

If a kid was interested in arrowheads, he or she could learn about flint knapping. Potters got young’uns hands in clay and taught them how to make a pinch pot. Arming visitors with wooden mallets, a leather worker gave folks a chance to stamp a piece of leather.

Farriers Chuck Chapman and Lee Lytton were manning the forge and the 400-pound anvil. They both shoe horses. Chapman hot shoes them, and Lytton cold shoes them.

“All of my shirts have little holes burned in the front,” Chapman said, clanging away on a red-hot piece of metal he was bending into a u-shape.

“Don’t you save some for good?” someone asks.

“No,” he replied. “My idea of a good time is to go to town for a cup of coffee.”

“With his team (of workhorses),” Lytton added, laughing.

Continuing to pound on the piece of metal, Chapman said he was making a chain, and had three links. “Maybe by 2029, I’ll have nine or 10 links.”

There’s nothing like big hammers and fire to pique a child’s interest, and a young guest said he aspired to make knives.

Outside the smithy, Hunter Linstead of CoolNerd Glass demonstrated glassblowing, using the type of glass used to make test tubes and beakers years ago. He’s been a glass blower for 10 years.

A dull kaboom shattered the quiet making everyone jump. It was the tennis ball cannon kids and adults could fire at a target.

Also popular with kids were the rides, including an old-fashioned carnival ride with chubby planes children could climb into for a spin; it’s one of only two that are still complete left in the world, according to Mangels. Other rides were an army jeep, a tank, a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang auto, a military motorcycle complete with side car, a Lionel train kids could ride, plus the ever-popular barrel train.

Before they visited the rides, the Martynowicz family from Kila let Harper, 7, and Declan, 5, talk to women busily making yarn on spinning wheels. They each chose a soft piece of hand-spun fiber to twist into a bracelet.

The process of owning and shearing a sheep, washing and carding the wool, spinning it into yarn and weaving together a piece of cloth to use for clothing seemed like a monumental task.

A group of camp hosts from St. Regis came for the event. Anne Young pointed to a Standard Oil sign, and her husband, Kevin, said his grandfather, G. B. “Dick” Hinman, was the original Standard Oil fuel delivery man.

Visitors wandered the acreage, visiting the old schoolhouse, and peeking into barns and sheds. Kids sat in a helicopter shell or a jet plane cockpit and dreamed they were flying, as everyone got their dose of American history.

    A boy sprints towards a display of UFO's and flying saucers at Live History Days. (Berl Tiskus/Leader)
  

    Gil Mangels, Miracle of America Museum CEO, has a big grin on his face as he watches visitors enjoy Live History Days. (Berl Tiskus/Leader)
  

    The Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car was a popular ride at Live History Days last weekend. (Berl Tiskus/Leader)