Cut Bank Creek

Cut Bank Creek
Origin	48°34′55″N 113°07′44″W / 48.58194°N 113.12889°W / 48.58194; -113.12889 (Cut Bank Creek)[1]
Mouth	48°29′12″N 112°13′36″W / 48.48667°N 112.22667°W / 48.48667; -112.22667 (Cut Bank Creek)Coordinates: 48°29′12″N 112°13′36″W / 48.48667°N 112.22667°W / 48.48667; -112.22667 (Cut Bank Creek)[1]
Basin countries	Glacier County, Montana
Mouth elevation	3,294 feet (1,004 m)[1]
River system	Missouri River

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 spectacular scenic gorge 150 feet (46 m) deep^[2] 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.

See also

• List of rivers of Montana
• Montana Stream Access Law

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c} "Cut Bank Creek". Geographic Names Information System, U.S. Geological Survey. http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:3:::NO::P3_FID:770399. 
2. ^ 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)