The southern half of Flathead Lake is surrounded by the Flathead Indian Reservation, home to a mixed population of Flathead Salish, Kootenai, and Caucasians, who make up around 80 percent of the reservation’s population. The large reservation covers a 1.2 million-acre area, roughly 35 by 65 miles, hemmed in by the Mission and Cabinet Mountains, but apart from a few small towns, it’s mostly prairie and riverside wetlands.

  The largest of these towns, Polson, at the bottom end of the lake where the Flathead River flows south, is a predominately white retirement community, with 24-hour gas stations, the area’s only ATMs, a Safeway supermarket, and chain motels. Polson is also home to the deluxe lakefront Best Western KwaTaqNuk Resort ($65–135; 406/883-3636), at 303 US-93 East and owned and operated by the Salish-Kootenai tribe, with two pools, an on-site casino, a boat dock, and direct access to the lake.

  Just two miles south of Polson along US-93, the bizarre but fascinating Miracle of America Museum (daily in summer, shorter hours rest of the year; $3; 406/883-6804), which calls itself “Western Montana’s Largest Museum,” displays a mixed bag of kitchen appliances, toys, tractors, armored tanks, and framed newspaper clippings to give a unique (to say the least!) view of America’s industrial, military, and cultural history. If you’d enjoy things like a motorized toboggan or a collection of tractor seats, count on spending an hour at least—twice that long if you also like music, because the museum doubles as the Montana Fiddler’s Hall of Fame.