East Glacier Park is an unincorporated community and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) in

Glacier County, Montana 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 ...

, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 354.

History

The Great Northern Railway platted the community of Midvale in the 1890s. The town name was eventually changed to Glacier Park and officially became East Glacier Park in 1949. There are two

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

listings: the Ranger Station Historic District and the

Women's Club The club movement is an American women's social movement that started in the mid-19th century and spread throughout the United States. It established the idea that women had a moral duty and responsibility to transform public policy. While wome ...

2022 attack

On July 19, 2022, 37-year-old Derick Amos Madden rammed his pickup truck (a

Toyota Tacoma The Toyota Tacoma is a pickup truck manufactured by Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota since 1995. The first-generation Tacoma (model years 1995 through 2004) was classified as a compact pickup; subsequent models are classified as mid-size ...

) into a

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. With a population of 148,620 and a Syracuse metropolitan area, metropolitan area of 662,057, it is the fifth-most populated city and 13 ...

, family in East Glacier Park Village. After crashing, he emerged with a shotgun and fatally shot the father and his 18-month-old daughter. He also critically injured the mother and the sister-in-law, the latter of whom had been in a relationship with Madden. Madden, who also used a knife in the attack, was subsequently killed by the sister-in-law when she fought back, wrestled away his own knife, and made an end of it. Two other children in the family survived uninjured.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the CDP has a total area of , all land. A significant number of

lakes A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from t ...

are located in the area.

Climate

East Glacier's climate is borderline

Subarctic The subarctic zone is a region in the Northern Hemisphere immediately south of the true Arctic, north of hemiboreal regions and covering much of Alaska, Canada, Iceland, the north of Fennoscandia, Northwestern Russia, Siberia, and the Cair ...

Humid Continental Humidity is the concentration of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor, the gaseous state of water, is generally invisible to the human eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood for precipitation, dew, or fog to be present. Humidity depe ...

, with warm summers, and winters generally beginning in November and lasting into March.

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 396 people, 148 households, and 101 families residing in the CDP. The population density was . There were 219 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the CDP was 43.43%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.25%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 51.77% Native American, 1.26% from other races, and 3.28% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 0.76% of the population. There were 148 households, out of which 35.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.7% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 14.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.1% were non-families. 23.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 4.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.68 and the average family size was 3.27. In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 32.1% under the age of 18, 5.6% from 18 to 24, 28.8% from 25 to 44, 26.5% from 45 to 64, and 7.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.1 males. The median income for a household in the CDP was $37,417, and the median income for a family was $39,250. Males had a median income of $32,250 versus $27,917 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the CDP was $17,318. About 14.3% of families and 14.1% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 17.3% of those under age 18 and 26.8% of those age 65 or over.

Infrastructure

Transportation

The East Glacier Park Amtrak Station is open seasonally during the spring, summer and fall, served by the ''

Empire Builder The ''Empire Builder'' is a daily long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak between Chicago and either Seattle or Portland via two sections west of Spokane. Introduced in 1929, it was the flagship passenger train of the Great North ...

'' between Chicago and Seattle/Portland. During the winter the stop is at

Browning, Montana Browning is a former town and current Census-designated place in Glacier County, Montana, Glacier County, Montana, United States. It is the headquarters for the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and was the only incorporated town on the Reservation. T ...

, just east of East Glacier Village.

Glacier Park International Airport Glacier Park International Airport is in Flathead County, Montana, United States, six miles northeast of Kalispell, Montana, Kalispell. The airport is owned and operated by the Flathead Municipal Airport Authority, a public agency created by t ...

at Kalispell is the closest airport.

Emergency services

The East Glacier Volunteer Fire Department was founded in 1968. Today, it consists of around 18 volunteers who help protect the village and surrounding area from the threat of

wildland fire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a bushfire ( in Australia), desert ...

Gallery

File:East Glacier Park Village Looking north on US2.jpg, Looking north in East Glacier Park File:Glacier Park Train Station.jpg, East Glacier Park Amtrak station File:East Glacier Montana Post Office.jpg, Post office

References

{{authority control * Census-designated places in Glacier County, Montana Census-designated places in Montana