Cut Bank, MT: Amtrack/GN Depot and Wood & Concrete Grain Elevators

Depot: (Satellite)

Wood Elevator: (Satellite)

CHS Elevator: (Satellite)

This town had been a railroad town and an oil & gas town. [cutbankchamber] It is obviously still an agriculture support town.

Street View, Oct 2023

That is a big wood grain elevator.

Street View, Oct 2023

This is the other end of that elevator. The facility on the left is labeled CHS Fertilizer Plant.

Street View, Oct 2023

Even the grain storage elevator has a wood part.

Street View, Oct 2023

I don't see a fall protector for rail service. In the foreground is some equipment for handling fertilizer.

Street View, Oct 2023

And yet it appears that they have enough siding space to hold a unit train. And there is even a cut of five covered hoppers on a siding.

Satellite

This view summarizes the ag support in this town. The new elevator on the left, the fertilizer plant in the middle and the old elevator on the right.

Street View, Oct 2023

I found the depot while looking for this trestle. I include this photo here because of the information provided about the town.

theclio via Dennis DeBruler
"As we cross the bridge you can see the distinctive banks of the creek that give Cut Bank its name. Cut Bank Creek is the eastern boundary of the Blackfeet Nation. Before the Great Northern Railway arrived in 1890 to open a small station and construct one of the larger trestles on the line across Cut Bank Creek, few Americans had been to this area, though it was inhabited by the indigenous people of the Northern Great Plains. Meriwether Lewis and his small party traveled and camped along Cut Bank Creek over 200 years ago. Cut Bank’s population has varied widely over the last century, mostly in response to the ups and downs of the railroad and the oil and gas industry. In the 1970s, the town had over 5,000 residents; today it’s about 3,000 residents. Cut Bank is susceptible to extreme weather. According to the National Weather Service, the hottest temperature on record was 107°F (42 C) back in August, 1961. The coldest temperature on record is -47°F (-44 C) in February, 1936, and the coldest wind chill temperature is -86°F (-66 C)."
Seppo Hill-Ramier and Robert Catherman. "Cut Bank Creek." Clio: Your Guide to History. May 14, 2024. Accessed October 1, 2024. https://theclio.com/entry/181058