The Piegan–Carway Border Crossing connects the towns of

Babb, Montana Babb (Blackfeet: , "Lakes Inside", or , “Cree Town”) is a small unincorporated farming and ranching community in Glacier County, Montana, United States, on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. The community experiences a large influx of tourist ...

, and

Cardston, Alberta Cardston is a town in Alberta, Canada. It was first settled in 1887 by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) who travelled from Utah, via the Macleod-Benton Trail, to present-day Alberta in one of the century ...

, on the

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

U.S. Route 89 U.S. Route 89 (US 89) is a north–south United States Numbered Highway with two sections, and one former section. The southern section runs for from Flagstaff, Arizona, to the southern entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The northern sectio ...

on the American side joins

Alberta Highway 2 Highway 2 (also known as the Queen Elizabeth II Highway) is a major List of Alberta provincial highways, highway in Alberta that stretches from the Canada–United States border through Calgary and Edmonton to Grande Prairie. Running primaril ...

on the Canadian side.

Canadian side

The earliest customs service in the region began around eastward at St. Mary's Crossing on the Saint Mary River in 1883, where the

North-West Mounted Police The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) was a Canadian paramilitary police force, established in 1873, to maintain order in the new Canadian North-West Territories (NWT) following the 1870 transfer of Rupert's Land and North-Western Territory to ...

(NWMP) collected duties and patrolled the border. St. Mary's closed in 1901. At that time, the Cardston customs postal collecting station upgraded to a customs office, operating from 1901 until 1943. In 1904, the St. Mary's NWMP moved to Twin Lakes (present day Police Outpost Provincial Park, about westward). Based about one mile north of border, the NWMP collected duties until a regular customs office opened, which operated from 1912 until 1932. The

Carway Carway () is a village situated to the north-west of the town of Llanelli in the county of Carmarthenshire, Wales, in the Gwendraeth Valley. It is part of the community of Llangyndeyrn, and had a population of 1,403 in 2021.''Thomas Brinkhoff: ...

crossing was established in 1926 with the completion of the Cardston Highway. Canada Customs officer Herbert Legg created the name by combining the words Cardston and Highway. Prior to the erection of the building, a tent was used for four months. William Roberts was the inaugural customs officer from 1926 until 1938. The Port of Lethbridge provided administrative oversight. The customs building was replaced in 1954. In 1994, the border station hours were extended to match the 7am–11pm on the US side.

US side

The customs station opened in 1926. A station operated in Browning from 1934 until 1946. The highway connects

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

with

Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park The Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park is the union of Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada and Glacier National Park in the United States. Both parks are declared Biosphere Reserves by UNESCO and their union as a World Heritage Site. ...

. This crossing is the third-busiest in Montana. Twenty homes for US border officials are near the station. In 1933, the US built a log cabin-style border station, which is on the

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 ...

. The US built a new facility in 2003, but the historic border station still stands a short distance to the south.

Footnotes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Piegan Carway Border Crossing Canada–United States border crossings 1926 establishments in Alberta 1926 establishments in Montana Buildings and structures in Glacier County, Montana Cardston

Canadian side

US side

See also

Footnotes

References