Sand Coulee is a

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 ...

and

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Cascade County,

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

, United States. Its population was 212 as of the 2010 census. Named Giffen in 1881, after Nat McGiffen, the town’s name changed to Sand Coulee when the McGiffens left the area. In 1883 Sand Coulee Coal Company, a coal mining company, was established. Recognizing the potential,

James J. Hill James Jerome Hill (September 16, 1838 – May 29, 1916) was a Canadian-American railway director. He was the chief executive officer of a family of lines headed by the Great Northern Railway, which served a substantial area of the Upper Midwest ...

purchased the company and renamed it Cottonwood Coal Company. The town slowly withered when the railroad switched to diesel engines in the 1930s.

Demographics

Education

Centerville Public Schools educates students from kindergarten through 12th grade. They serve the communities of Sand Coulee, Centerville, Tracy and Stockett. Centerville High School is a Class C school. They are known as the Miners.

References

Census-designated places in Cascade County, Montana Census-designated places in Montana Unincorporated communities in Montana Unincorporated communities in Cascade County, Montana {{CascadeCountyMT-geo-stub