Glacier County, Montana | |
|---|---|
 Glacier County Courthouse in Cut Bank | |
 Location within the U.S. state ofMontana | |
| Coordinates:48°42′N113°01′W / 48.7°N 113.02°W /48.7; -113.02 | |
| Country |  United States |
| State |  Montana |
| Founded | 1919 |
| Named after | Theglaciers inGlacier National Park |
| Seat | Cut Bank |
| Largest city | Cut Bank |
| Area | |
• Total | 3,037 sq mi (7,870 km2) |
| • Land | 2,996 sq mi (7,760 km2) |
| • Water | 41 sq mi (110 km2) 1.40% |
| Population (2020) | |
• Total | 13,778 |
• Estimate (2024) | 13,503 |
| • Density | 4.599/sq mi (1.776/km2) |
| Time zone | UTC−7 (Mountain) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−6 (MDT) |
| Congressional district | 1st |
| Website | glaciercountymt |
| |
Glacier County is located in theU.S. state ofMontana. As of the2020 census, the population was 13,778.[1] Thecounty is located in northwestern Montana between theGreat Plains and theRocky Mountains, known to theBlackfeet as the "Backbone of the World". The county is geographically and culturally diverse and includes theBlackfeet Indian Reservation,Glacier National Park, andLewis and Clark National Forest. The county is bordered by 75 miles of international boundary with two ports of entry (Piegan andDel Bonita) open year-round and one seasonal (Chief Mountain) international border crossing intoAlberta, Canada.
Several smallunincorporated communities, oneincorporated town, and oneincorporated city are located within the county.
Cut Bank, thecounty seat[2] with a population of around 3,000, is located in eastern Glacier County, on the edge of theGreat Plains. Cut Bank arose from the railway[3] and agricultural needs of the surrounding area, and was fostered by anoil boom in the1920s.[4] The town's diverse population is a result of this settlement. Town resources and services include a hospital and clinic, an historic airport (with regional and international connections), a nine-holegolf course, and a municipal swimming pool. Nearby historical sites from theLewis and Clark expedition, among other historic and prehistoric locations, can be visited. The Glacier County Museum has a collection of archaeological artifacts, historic buildings, community memorabilia, and a comprehensive archive of early area history and individuals, including a large collection of data on Blackfeet history.
Browning is the home and government seat of the Blackfeet Tribe.[5] The incorporated portion of Browning, at 1,400 residents, does not reflect the total population of around 7,000 in the wider community, largely representative of the Blackfeet Tribe on a part of their ancestral homeland, which dates back over 400 years. Town businesses and resources include a federal building,Blackfeet Community College, Native American Museum and Heritage Center,casino, fairgrounds,racetrack, and Native American camp area that hosts an annual Native American celebration andpowwow.[citation needed]
Babb is a small, unincorporated farming and ranching community on theBlackfeet Indian Reservation. The community experiences a large influx of tourists in the summer months,[citation needed] as it is the gateway to theMany Glacier area ofGlacier National Park. Community infrastructure includes one school, aUS post office, afire station, and ageneral store as well as amotel,gas station, several restaurants, and two churches.[citation needed] Nearby attractions include the aforementioned Glacier National Park, the historicMany Glacier Hotel, theSt. Mary River and Irrigation Canal, andChief Mountain, as well as thePiegan andChief Mountain border crossings with Alberta, Canada.
East Glacier Park Village, a small winter community, grows in the summertime with many visitors and the summer workforce, hailing from all parts of the globe to meet the needs of the larger population.[citation needed] It is the site of the largest of Glacier Park's historic hotels and its fleet of "red buses".[citation needed] It has a nine-hole golf course, campgrounds, trail rides, boat rides, and native interpretive tours.
St. Mary is an unincorporated community on the western border of the Blackfeet Native American Reservation, located adjacent to Glacier National Park. The village is the eastern terminus of theGoing-to-the-Sun Road which bisects the park east-to-west at a length of 53 miles (85 km). Fewer than 50 people reside in the village year-round; however, the population increases tenfold on a busy summer evening. It has several lodges, restaurants and cafés, a small grocery store, two gas stations and campgrounds. A large housing area forNational Park Service personnel is located adjacent to the village, within the park.U.S. Route 89 passes through the village, which lies betweenSaint Mary Lake in Glacier National Park and Lower St. Mary Lake on the Blackfeet Native American Reservation.
Starr School is acensus-designated place (CDP) in Glacier County. The population was 252 at the 2010 census.
According to theUnited States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 3,037 square miles (7,870 km2), of which 2,996 square miles (7,760 km2) is land and 41 square miles (110 km2) (1.3%) is water.[6] About 71% of the county's land area lies within theBlackfeet Indian Reservation. Another 21% lies withinGlacier National Park in western Glacier County.
Owing largely to its majority Native American population, Glacier County generally votes stronglyDemocratic, in contrast with most other rural Montana counties, which trendRepublican. Democratic strength lies in the western and central portions of the county in the Blackfeet Reservation, including the city of Browning. However, the eastern portion of the county, including Cut Bank, votes strongly Republican. In most recent elections, Glacier has been the most Democratic county in the state.
In the2024 election, Glacier county saw a shift toward the Republican party, the strongest such shift of all Montana counties. This mirrored other counties in Montana with high Native American populations, such asBlaine,Roosevelt andBig Horn, which all flipped or leaned more Republican after 2020. WhileKamala Harris still easily won the county, this was the first time that Glacier County voted to the right ofMissoula County since 1980.[7]
| Year | Republican | Democratic | Third party(ies) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | |
| 1920 | 1,297 | 69.14% | 531 | 28.30% | 48 | 2.56% |
| 1924 | 586 | 41.68% | 511 | 36.34% | 309 | 21.98% |
| 1928 | 847 | 46.39% | 976 | 53.45% | 3 | 0.16% |
| 1932 | 702 | 28.78% | 1,717 | 70.40% | 20 | 0.82% |
| 1936 | 781 | 23.92% | 2,453 | 75.13% | 31 | 0.95% |
| 1940 | 1,352 | 35.96% | 2,399 | 63.80% | 9 | 0.24% |
| 1944 | 1,228 | 36.34% | 2,142 | 63.39% | 9 | 0.27% |
| 1948 | 1,238 | 35.29% | 2,238 | 63.80% | 32 | 0.91% |
| 1952 | 2,061 | 54.68% | 1,698 | 45.05% | 10 | 0.27% |
| 1956 | 2,054 | 52.99% | 1,822 | 47.01% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1960 | 1,775 | 43.95% | 2,260 | 55.95% | 4 | 0.10% |
| 1964 | 1,458 | 39.44% | 2,218 | 59.99% | 21 | 0.57% |
| 1968 | 1,643 | 44.76% | 1,723 | 46.94% | 305 | 8.31% |
| 1972 | 2,143 | 56.11% | 1,469 | 38.47% | 207 | 5.42% |
| 1976 | 1,892 | 50.81% | 1,755 | 47.13% | 77 | 2.07% |
| 1980 | 2,283 | 55.78% | 1,394 | 34.06% | 416 | 10.16% |
| 1984 | 2,228 | 50.24% | 2,167 | 48.86% | 40 | 0.90% |
| 1988 | 1,728 | 43.16% | 2,151 | 53.72% | 125 | 3.12% |
| 1992 | 1,222 | 28.27% | 2,076 | 48.02% | 1,025 | 23.71% |
| 1996 | 1,270 | 31.01% | 2,292 | 55.97% | 533 | 13.02% |
| 2000 | 1,709 | 41.44% | 2,211 | 53.61% | 204 | 4.95% |
| 2004 | 1,828 | 40.07% | 2,641 | 57.89% | 93 | 2.04% |
| 2008 | 1,451 | 29.19% | 3,423 | 68.86% | 97 | 1.95% |
| 2012 | 1,415 | 31.76% | 2,924 | 65.63% | 116 | 2.60% |
| 2016 | 1,620 | 31.92% | 3,121 | 61.50% | 334 | 6.58% |
| 2020 | 1,884 | 33.54% | 3,610 | 64.27% | 123 | 2.19% |
| 2024 | 1,939 | 38.18% | 2,933 | 57.76% | 206 | 4.06% |
| Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1920 | 4,178 | — | |
| 1930 | 5,297 | 26.8% | |
| 1940 | 9,034 | 70.5% | |
| 1950 | 9,645 | 6.8% | |
| 1960 | 11,565 | 19.9% | |
| 1970 | 10,783 | −6.8% | |
| 1980 | 10,628 | −1.4% | |
| 1990 | 12,121 | 14.0% | |
| 2000 | 13,247 | 9.3% | |
| 2010 | 13,399 | 1.1% | |
| 2020 | 13,778 | 2.8% | |
| 2024 (est.) | 13,503 | [9] | −2.0% |
| U.S. Decennial Census[10] 1790–1960,[11] 1900–1990,[12] 1990–2000,[13] 2010–2020[1] | |||
As of the2020 census, there were 13,778 people living in the county.[14]
Of the residents, 31.4% were under the age of 18 and 12.7% were 65 years of age or older; the median age was 32.8 years. For every 100 females there were 95.4 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 91.9 males. 0.0% of residents lived in urban areas and 100.0% lived in rural areas.[15]
The racial makeup of the county was 25.6% White, 0.1%Black or African American, 67.2%American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%Asian, 0.2% from some other race, and 6.5% fromtwo or more races.Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 2.2% of the population.[14]
There were 4,557 households in the county, of which 41.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them and 32.2% had a female householder with no spouse or partner present. About 26.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.[16]
There were 5,342 housing units, of which 14.7% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 59.1% were owner-occupied and 40.9% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.6% and the rental vacancy rate was 5.3%.[16]
| Race(NH = Non-Hispanic) | 2020[17] | 2010[18] | 2000[19] | 1990[20] | 1980[21] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| White alone (NH) | 25.4% (3,496) | 30.7% (4,117) | 35.3% (4,675) | 43.3% (5,244) | 53.6% (5,693) |
| Black alone (NH) | 0.1% (19) | 0.1% (17) | 0.1% (11) | 0.1% (11) | 0% (0) |
| American Indian alone (NH) | 65.9% (9,085) | 64.5% (8,644) | 61% (8,075) | 55.9% (6,773) | 45.9% (4,882) |
| Asian alone (NH) | 0.3% (39) | 0.2% (26) | 0.1% (8) | 0.1% (10) | 0% (0) |
| Pacific Islander alone (NH) | 0.1% (16) | 0% (1) | 0.1% (7) | ||
| Other race alone (NH) | 0.1% (10) | 0% (5) | 0% (3) | 0% (5) | 0% (0) |
| Multiracial (NH) | 5.9% (812) | 2.6% (348) | 2.3% (309) | — | — |
| Hispanic/Latino (any race) | 2.2% (301) | 1.8% (241) | 1.2% (159) | 0.6% (78) | 0.5% (53) |
The most reported ancestries in2020 were:[22]
As of the2010 census, there were 13,399 people, 4,361 households, and 3,088 families residing in the county. The population density was 4.5 inhabitants per square mile (1.7/km2). There were 5,348 housing units at an average density of 1.8 per square mile (0.69/km2). The racial makeup of the county was 65.6% Native American, 31.1% white, 0.2% Asian, 0.1% black or African American, 0.2% from other races, and 2.8% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 1.8% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 13.6% wereGerman, 7.2% wereIrish, 5.6% wereNorwegian, and 1.4% wereAmerican.
Of the 4,361 households, 44.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.8% were married couples living together, 19.1% had a female householder with no husband present, 29.2% were non-families, and 24.9% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.91 and the average family size was 3.49. The median age was 31.7 years.
The median income for a household in the county was $38,075 and the median income for a family was $44,397. Males had a median income of $31,700 versus $30,594 for females. The per capita income for the county was $17,053. About 21.4% of families and 25.4% of the population were below thepoverty line, including 35.0% of those under age 18 and 12.9% of those age 65 or over.
High school districts include:[35]
Elementary school districts include:[35]
Places adjacent to Glacier County, Montana | |
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Municipalities and communities ofGlacier County, Montana,United States | ||
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| City |  | |
| CDPs | ||
| Indian reservation | ||
| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties | |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Geographic | |
| Other | |
