Cut Bank is a city in and the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

Glacier County Glacier County is located in the U.S. state of Montana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 13,778. The county is located in northwestern Montana between the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, known to the Blackfeet as the "Backbone ...

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

, United States, located just east of the "

cut bank A cut bank, also known as a river cliff or river-cut cliff, is the outside bank of a curve or meander in a water channel (stream), which is continually undergoing erosion.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Ed, Stephen Marshak Cut banks are found in abu ...

" (

gorge A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...

) along Cut Bank Creek. The population was 3,056 at the 2020 census, The town began in 1891 with the arrival of the Great Northern Railway.

Geography

Cut Bank is located in eastern Glacier County at (48.634801, −112.331090). U.S. Route 2 passes through the city as Main Street, leading east to Interstate 15 at Shelby and west to Browning. The Blackfeet Indian Reservation is located just west of Cut Bank, on the western side of Cut Bank Creek. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the city has a total area of , all land. The city is located south of the

Canada–United States border The border between Canada and the United States is the longest international border in the world. The terrestrial boundary (including boundaries in the Great Lakes, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts) is long. The land border has two sections: Can ...

. The name of the city comes from the

(gorge) a scenic hazard to navigation and a geologic feature of the same name. The Cut Bank Creek river is spanned cliffs to cliffs by a scenic elevated railway bridge high above the canyon floor less than a mile from the edge of the town.

Demographics

2010 census

As of the 2010 census, there were 2,869 people, 1,249 households and 739 families residing in the city. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...

was . There were 1,441 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 74.7%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

, 0.2%

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 19.0% Native American, 0.5%

Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

, 0.4% from other races, and 5.2% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...

Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...

of any race were 2.5% of the population. There were 1,249 households, of which 30.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.4% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...

living together, 10.6% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.1% had a male householder with no wife present, and 40.8% were non-families. 35.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 14.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.26 and the average family size was 2.94. The median age was 41.2 years. 24.4% of residents were under the age of 18; 7.7% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 22.4% were from 25 to 44; 28.8% were from 45 to 64; and 16.8% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 48.2% male and 51.8% female.

Transportation

Cut Bank is served by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

's '' Empire Builder'' long-distance train on its route from

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

. There is one eastbound and one westbound train per day. A train of the same name served the city under Amtrak's predecessor, the Great Northern Railway. The city, in conjunction with Amtrak and the current track owner

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

, recently repainted its historic train station in the traditional Great Northern depot colors. The city contains an important railroad freight yard operated by the BNSF. Cut Bank Municipal Airport is three miles southwest of Cut Bank.

Education

Cut Bank Public Schools educates students from kindergarten through 12th grade. Cut Bank High School's team name is the Wolves. Cut Bank has a

public library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are ...

, called the Glacier County Library.

Climate

Cut Bank experiences a

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...

( Köppen ''BSk'') with long, cold, dry winters and short, warm, wetter summers. In winter, bitterly cold arctic air masses move south and impact the eastern side of the American

Continental Divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not ...

. During such invasions Cut Bank, with its comparatively high elevation and topography is frequently the coldest location in the lower 48 U.S. States. Being close to the eastern slopes of the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

also makes the area subject to occasional

Chinook winds Chinook winds, or simply Chinooks, are two types of prevailing warm, generally westerly winds in western North America: Coastal Chinooks and interior Chinooks. The coastal Chinooks are persistent seasonal, wet, southwesterly winds blowing in from ...

that can rapidly increase the local temperature.

Notable people

Gerard Jones Gerard Jones (born July 10, 1957) is an American writer, known primarily for his non-fiction work about American entertainment media, and his comic book scripting, which includes co-creating the superhero Prime for Malibu Comics, and writing for ...

, comic book writer, born in Cut Bank * Rosalie Mae Jones/Daystar, choreographer and dancer, founder of Daystar Contemporary Dance-Drama of Indian America *

James C. Nelson James C. Nelson (born February 20, 1944) is a retired American attorney and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Montana Supreme Court from 1993 through 2012, having been appointed to the court by Republican Party (United States), Rep ...

, Montana Supreme Court justice *

Rob Quist Robert Ernest Quist (born January 5, 1948) is an American singer, instrumentalist (playing guitar and banjo), songwriter, and politician. Originally a founding member of the Mission Mountain Wood Band, his songs have also been recorded by artist ...

, musician *

Glenn Roush Glenn Arthur Roush (January 25, 1934 – May 27, 2020) was an American politician who served in both chambers of the Montana Legislature. Early life and education Roush was born in Helena, Montana and graduated from Cut Bank High School in ...

, Montana state legislator *

Hart Merriam Schultz Hart Merriam Schultz, also known by his Blackfoot name, Lone Wolf (''Nitoh Mahkwii'' or ''Ni-tah-mah-kwi-i''), was an Indian artist of the twentieth century. Most of his work was done in either Arizona or Montana, after he completed his artistic ...

, American Indian artist *

Gloria Jean Siebrecht Gloria Jean Siebrecht (born 1940) is an American amateur paleontologist and volunteer for the Museum of the Rockies, notable as the discoverer of '' Avisaurus Gloriae'', which was named for her, and '' Piksi barbarulna''. She is the sixth chi ...

, amateur paleontologist * Alexis Wineman,

Miss Montana The Miss Montana competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the U.S. state of Montana in the Miss America pageant. Unlike most state pageants in the Miss America system, Montana does not use preliminary local pageants t ...

2012 *

Danielle Wineman Danielle Wineman is an American actress and beauty pageant titleholder from Cut Bank, Montana, who was named Montana's Junior Miss 2010 and crowned Miss Montana 2015. She competed for the Miss America 2016 title in September 2015. Her younger ...

, Miss Montana 2015

References

External links

City of Cut Bank official website
{{authority control Cities in Glacier County, Montana County seats in Montana Cities in Montana