Cut Bank Creek

The Cut Bank Creek
river with steep banks
The Cut Bank Creek at Cut Bank, Montana
Map
Location
CountryGlacier County, Montana
Physical characteristics
Source 
 • locationPitamakan Lake, Mount Morgan(Montana)
 • coordinates48°31′09.1″N 113°27′34″W / 48.519194°N 113.45944°W / 48.519194; -113.45944 (North Fork Cut Bank Creek)[1]
2nd source 
 • locationMad Wolf Mountain
 • coordinates48°35′12.5″N 113°22′05.4″W / 48.586806°N 113.368167°W / 48.586806; -113.368167 (South Fork Cut Bank Creek)[1]
Mouth 
 • coordinates
48°29′12″N 112°13′36″W / 48.48667°N 112.22667°W / 48.48667; -112.22667 (Cut Bank Creek)[1]
 • elevation
3,294 feet (1,004 m)[1]
Discharge 
 • locationCut Bank
 • average179 cu ft/s (5.1 m3/s)[2]
Basin features
River systemMissouri River

The Cut Bank Creek is a tributary of the Marias River in the Missouri River basin watershed, approximately 75 mi (123 km) long, in northwestern Montana in the United States, which having deeply eroded steep cliff banks eponymously gives name to the cut bank formal terrain term of geological science.

It rises in the Rocky Mountains in Glacier National Park at the continental divide and flows ENE onto the foothills and plains of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, then southeast, past Cut Bank, Montana where it forms a scenic gorge 150 feet (46 m) deep[3] spanned by an elevated railway bridge just a mile from the town's Amtrak rail transport system passenger station and BNSF railway freight yards. The river and cliff there are prototypical giving rise to the eponymous formally named "cut bank" geographic terrain feature archetype.

In southeastern Glacier County, approximately 12 mi (19 km) southeast of Cut Bank, it joins the Two Medicine River to form the Marias River.

There is a brewery in Cut Bank whose name is based on this creek.[4]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d "Cut Bank Creek". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  2. ^ "USGS Surface Water data for Montana: USGS Surface-Water Annual Statistics".
  3. ^ Google Earth, which reports imagery dated 2004-04-30th; calculated differential altitudes at trestle bridge east side tracks to gorge river measures 3717-3563ft = 154 feet (47 m) with minor consistent variations averaging 150 feet (46 m)
  4. ^ "Cut Bank Creek Brewery". cutbankcreekbrewery. Retrieved 2023-07-02.



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