Museum Review - Boise Military Museums

The Motherly One and I went to Boise, Idaho to attend a wedding so we decided to add a few days on the front end to check out the town. We did the State Capitol, which was a disappointment as nothing was open within the building and it was somewhat boring as everything was the same white marble. We also planned to check out the Warhawk Museum, the Old Idaho State Penitentiary and found on the grounds of the Old State Pen, the J. Curtis Earl Weapons Collection.

Warhawk Museum

Nampa, ID
$15 for normal adults, kids are $5, discounts for seniors and veterans.
Website

As the Motherly One stated “This is a war museum with a few airplanes thrown in” and I agree. There were tons of war memorabilia which is not military equipment but personal artifacts and stories of men and women who have served in the armed forces from WW I and forward. The self-guided tour has over 300 entries in the provided paper guide and if you wish to go digital there is also an app you can download.

The R4360 from the B-36

As to the planes, there were 2 P-40s both of which have been used in movies. As a docent proudly told me “What do think pays for all this? Those royalties!” There is also the P-51C “Miss Boise”, a T-6, an L-19, Fokker DR-1, UH-1C Huey, an N3N, Mig-17 and Mig-21, F-84G and an F-104 Starfighter. Not a bad collection, but nothing new. Anything with cylinders is in flying condition, everything else is stuck to the ground. There is also a half dozen cars scattered around the museum to appease the motorheads. But seriously, how can one get excited about a 1973 Chevy Kingswood Estate wagon? Oh, and a tank and a half track. There are cut away engines both reciprocating and jet, even an example of a Pratt & Whitney R4360-53 used in the B-36.

What makes this collection of artifacts engaging is the simple fact that for years Idahodian service personal or their families have been donating personal effects from their time in the military to the museum. As you enter the museum there is a set of tables, probably 30 feet long, covered in binders. Each one contains the story of one service man or women from WW II. There is even a catalog to indicate the service personnel, branch, timeframe, where served and the binder containing the story of this person. There are similar reading areas for Vietnam, the Korea and the Middle East.

The wedding dress.

As you wander around you will encounter this brass lampstand (not sure what else to call it) made entirely from spent military cartridges. In a nearby cabinet, you will find a wedding dress made from a Japanese parachute. Brought home as a souvenir by a service man, and when his fiancé accepted his proposal, they realized they had no money for a “proper” wedding dress. So, the parachute was repurposed by a neighbor into a very beautiful wedding dress.

There are cabinets with personal effects from Jimmy Doolittle, Ernie Pyle, Omar Bradley, Carmelita Pope (actress), The Jolly Rogers (5th Air Force B-24 group), and the submarine USS Boise. There is also a model of the USS Missouri which took 1,200 hours to build and contains over 5,000 parts made of glass. brass, photo etched brass, plastic and teak. This too was donated to the museum by an individual. (Sorry, Bean I completely missed this artifact so no pics) There is a Japanese flag captured at Iwo Jima, cabinets dedicated to other things such as the Tip Tow program, the SR-71, the Berlin Wall, Mother’s Flags and Sweetheart Pillows.

In writing this I looked at the self-guided tour and realized I missed so much as I wandered aimlessly around the museum. This large collection of military memorabilia, donated by those who served (or their families) is something that requires discipline to follow the tour and give oneself time to appreciate all that has done and given by those who served in the military and their families.

Old Idaho State Penitentiary

Boise, ID
Free entry, guided tours are $2
Website

Opened in 1872, this is only one of four territorial prisons open to the public today. In use for 101 years, this is a glimpse into Idaho’s past and a look into how the penal system matured with the times.

We took the guided tour and learned of prison riots and fires, hangings, escapes, captures, how the prison was built (by the inmates, who else?), the shirt factory (this only lasted a short time, this was during the depression and the commercial shirt manufacturers did not like their competitor’s use of free labor), the youngest inmate (a boy of 10, he killed his mother with a shotgun because he was tired of doing chores) and “Dennis the Cat” whose grave is on the property (more on him later).

The inside of 2 House

There are five “houses” for inmates plus numerous other buildings on the property. 2 House, built in 1899 contained two-man cells and did not have indoor plumbing. Inmates were given a honey bucket. This building was destroyed in a riot in 1973. 3 House was the same as 2 House but in 1921 was condemned. It was converted to a shoe factory and then remodeled in 1928 and was the first cell house with indoor plumbing. Houses 4 and 5 were built in the early 1950s. 4 House housed regular prisoners while 5 House was maximum security, Death Row and the gallows. Elsewhere on the grounds we saw the solitary confinement cells and the “cooler”.

About Dennis. He was found in the prison barn by an inmate as a kitten in 1952 and lived till 1968. He is the only “inmate” with a grave on the grounds. He was everybody’s pet and was great for moral, so the warden let him stay. He was born and died on the same day: Memorial Day, so at the prison, Memorial Day is Dennis the Cat Day which is a big deal in Boise.

What we did not know about when we decided to visit the prison was the J Curtis Earl Weapons Collection. Guns, lots of guns and was also free so how could this be passed up?

J. Curtis Earl Weapons Collection

Boise, ID
Free entry
Website

Machines Guns, Your Best Investment.

In 60s, 70s, and 80s J Curtis Earl was one of the 3 or so people who had all the ATF permitting to import/buy/sell NFA weapons including destructive devices. He was often referred to as a Class 3 dealer (there is no such animal). I tried to decipher all this but gave up, it is too long to go into here so you will have to do this on your own if you wish to understand how you too can buy and sell NFA weapons and destructive devices. Up until 1986 when the laws were revised, he was the king of the collector/resale crowd. In 1983 dollars the value of his collection (Title I and Title II) was 1.6 million dollars. For example, he had the world’s only complete collection of Thompson submachines guns. He also had several Lewis machines guns, 3 of which were bought by Pancho Villa and confiscated by the Arizona police at the border, another was used by Charles Nungesser, the WW I flying ace with 38 German kills.

He acquired his collection from police departments, MGM, prisons, private sellers and even by sniffing out things such as unregistered guns brought into the states as war mementos. He was ruthless in his dealings, and he was prescient in understanding the future value of all the items he was dealing in. He was also fearless, taking on several Federal agencies for $8.4 million in damages for “malicious prosecution”. He later dropped the lawsuit because “If I don’t, the Feds will not renew my license” in the 1980’s he decided to begin importing military aircraft. His first imports? 3 Chinese Mig 15s of which two were fully operational. The fuselage of the 3rd plane was filled with dozens of pristine Chinese bomber jackets and matching hats. Caught by the Feds he had to pay a fine but was allowed to keep the contraband!

The Collection.

Earl had by 1983 a collection of about 800 NFA firearms, only a portion is represented here. No many pictures as I did not fully appreciate what I was looking at, besides after a while all guns tend to look alike. Dozens of Thompsons sub machine guns, miniature replicas of Thompsons, M1903s, M1917s, Lewis guns, Vickers, Maxims, Bofors, Japanese Arisaka’s, British Lee Enfield’s, Russian Mosin-Nagant’s, an 1883 Gatling gun with its original carriage, M16s, M14s, Bronze age weaponry, Medieval age armor and swords, Revolutionary era and Civil War era black powder weapons, even an arquebus from the 16th century. You name it, it can be seen here. Well almost, I did not see any Swiss weapons which was a disappointment as I am a big fan of the Swiss K31.

The collection is arranged in chronological order from the Bronze Age to the current day. If you follow the timeline you will learn much about weapons development through the ages.

And if you are really into these sorts of things, 188 of his guns were sold to Windward Aviation based at the Champlin Fighter Museum in Mesa, AZ. Unfortunately, this has closed, and the collection was sold to the Museum of Flight in King County, WA. I looked at the Museum of Flight website, all that I found was one of the Mig-15s Earl imported in the 80s. We may never know where those 188 guns have gone.

The bottom line is if you ever end up in Boise and have some time to burn, I recommend you visit all three of the museums.