Paul Bunyan Anchor - Polson, Montana
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T0SHEA
N 47° 40.814 W 114° 06.970
11T E 716438 N 5284789
The Paul Bunyan anchor is in front of the Miracle of America Museum at 36094 Memory Lane. You cannot miss it as you can see it from Hwy. 93: it is 2 km south of the junction with Hwy. 35.
Waymark Code: WMM459
Location: Montana, United States
Date Posted: 07/18/2014
Views: 4
Visiting the Miracle of America Museum was one of the highlights of our visit to Montana. This is a huge museum and the outside displays you can see without charge, if you want to tour the indoor displays the admission is nominal.
Gil & Joanne Mangels founded the Miracle of America Museum in 1981 and are still passionate about it today. The day we were there Gil was always eager to answer all your questions and provided us with a map of the different displays.
This old anchor sits in front of the historic tug boat Paul Bunyan; seems dwarfed resting there. This anchor is original and was used on the Paul Bunyan and dates it in 1926.
There is a sign explaining some of the history of the tow boat:
Sign:
This logging tow boat was built in 1926 at Somers boat yard on the north end of Flathead Lake. It was named after Paul Bunyan the legendary logger who was bigger and stronger than ordinary men: Because this boat was so much bigger and stronger than the smaller steam tows which were then in use.
Floating logs were encircled by chained together boundary logs. The resulting raft or boom was then towed to a lumber mill either Somers Lumber Co. or Dewey Lumber Co. at Polson.
The boast was powered by a 6 cyl. 10 1/2 bore Fairbank 180-horsepower crude-oil engine. Unfortunately the engine was dynamited for scrap before we purchased it.
Newer roads and more powerful trucks phased out tow boat logging by 1951.
The Paul Bunyan is a 65foot logging tow boat located at the Miracle of America Museum. You can explore this 50 ton vessel, even climb aboard and take the helm to experience how it was when this might tow boat floated up and down the Flathead Lake.
To learn more about the Miracle of America Museum: (
visit link)
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