June/July Trip – Day #9 (More Montana)

Here’s the latest installment from the Montana portion of this summer’s trip.

From Drummond – the squarest arrow that I’ve ever seen. With a strange little readerboard built it. I guess that was used for the price or something very short!

I missed shooting the motel’s other sign which is still there. This postcard shows a panel on top right above “MOTEL” that now reads “Phones”:

The Bel Aire Motel in Missoula had a pole sign in the 1960s:

This digital board at the bottom was originally a backlit plastic readerboard with changeable letters:

Some more signs from Missoula. Ron’s opened in 1965 at this location and the sign appears to be from then:

Note the multi-stroke neon tubing:

The Top Hat opened in 1952 but I’m pretty sure that this sign is modern:

A close up of the Zip sign – note the embossed letters and textured porcelain panel. This place has an incredible go-with Art Deco building — and they are still in business:

This non-working spinner sign in Butte is a mystery. The plastic panels most recently advertised for a real estate office but I don’t know what business it was built for. I have seen two and four paddle spinner signs but not one this deluxe:

This one is in Deer Lodge — probably from the 1940s/1950s:

Here are a couple of photos from Anaconda. The Barclay II opened in 1981. The building housed Gil’s Gourmet House in the 1970s. I’m betting the sign is from the 1960s:

This place was built in 1937. There was a big fire in 2016 and it looked like this place was doomed — but it wasn’t! It reopened the following year:

Let’s close with some non-signs. This is a former Tastee-Freez in Missoula — the building has housed a computer business for many years:

This rooster in the grass statue is in Seely Lake. I’ve got a few other examples of this type at my website (and you’ll find hundreds of other roosters there as well):

https://www.roadarch.com/critters/birdschick.html#Bonner