UNSOLVED HISTORIES

The New Batch

Here's the latest batch of unsolved histories for your sleuthing and solving pleasure. On our travels across the state, MPA field technicians often spot a mysterious piece of Montana's roadside history and want to know more. With your help we can find the story behind some of Montana's intriguing, quirky, one-of-a-kind landmarks. If you know the location and history of any of these Montana oddities, write to  christine@preservemontana.org and we’ll print your story in our next newsletter. Scroll down for the answer to last months Polar Bear Sighting!

Jurassic Park?
What’s the story on this family of dinosaurs found roaming the plains of Eastern Montana?

Photo Courtesy Kate Hampton/MT SHPO

Jolly Green Giant
There have been four known sightings of these gigantic fiberglass bearded men along the highways of Montana. Can you tell us more about this tire guy with the green pants spotted in Billings?

Photo Courtesy Robert Tubbs and Roadside America

A Bunch of Bull?
Most of us have seen this giant bull at the Clearwater Junction on the corner of highways 200 and 83, but who really knows how, when, or why this portly landmark got there? Tell us the true story!

Photo Courtesy Donnie Sexton/Travel Montana

Fair Weather Friend ?
Just like the Polar Bear in Great Falls, we wonder how did this chilly penguin friend end up in Montana ? Where does he live and how long has he been there?

Photo Courtesy Montana Film Office

Hay! It’s a Sphinx!
It’s not everyday that a Sphinx shows up along the county road as your heading out of town. Though it’s probably not there now, we’d like to know what this Egyptian man/dog hay sculpture was doing out there!


Photo Courtesy of MontanaPictures.Net

Tired and Thirsty?
We’ve got penguins and bulls and sphinxes, so why not a camel? This cute friendly camel was spotted in Central Montana just calmly waiting for the mail truck or maybe the milk man to stop. Somebody tell us about the clever craftsman who made this tire rim beast.

Photo Courtesy of MontanaPictures.Net

Last Month's Unsolved History

Here’s the Scoop
MPA member Candi Zion wrote in to tell us the storyabout our arctic friend spotted on a rooftop in Great Falls. Though we don’t know the actual birth date or builder of this slightly lonely-looking polar bear, we do know that for years he patrolled the roof of the Polar Bear Café on the corner of 1st Avenue North and 5th Street. In 1955, Candi’s father, Scotty, a house mover, was hired to move the stucco bear to the corner of 9th Street and Central Avenue West. It sounds simple enough, but before moving the bear onto the site, the new lot had to be cleared of a house and many old cottonwood trees. Here's how Scotty Zion tells the story, from his 2002 book, Been Any Bigger I’d Have Said So.

Moving the house was no problem but the trees were.  We found the best method of removal was to cut the trees to a 12 foot stump, and attach a winch line from the top of the 12 foot stump to the base of a neighboring tree and pull the remainder of the tree from the ground, stump and all.  We would then load the tree on a lowboy with our crane.  The roots alone were much heavier than the trunk.  Well, I came on the scene just as the men were about to unhook the cable from the tree stump.  Being in a helpful frame of mind, I climbed up on the horizontal tree just in time for the darn thing to shift.  As the root end of the stump was far heavier than the trunk that I was standing on, I was catapulted high in the air, airborne for what seemed like ages.  I crashed to the hard asphalt street, breaking both arms.  Brother-in-law Dick hauled me off to the hospital for repairs. Well, our crew completed moving the Polar Bear Cafe without me...The stucco bear still stands on the roof of the cafe' on Central Avenue West reminding me of one of my less happy moments.