Cut Bank International Airport

By editor

Cut Bank, Glacier County, Montana

If you were to set foot on the airfield known today as Cut Bank International Airport, you might first notice a modest brick building from 1948, the administration building, which has held its ground like a stubborn mule since the days when Western Airlines’ Douglas DC-3s would lumber in to pick up passengers. That building, plain as a prairie sod house but with a certain post-war optimism baked into its bricks and mortar, marks an era when the United States was shaking off the dust of global conflict and trying to figure out how to turn war machines into peacetime conveniences.

But the story of Cut Bank’s airport stretches back further, to a time when the idea of airplanes in Montana was about as common as a snowstorm in July. The airport began as nothing more than a grass airstrip, a patch of land where barnstormers--those daredevils who flew flimsy planes for the thrill of it--could land and take off, occasionally flashing their wings at a curious crowd or a hopeful dentist.

Yes, a dentist. It was Dr. James A. McDonald, a World War I veteran pilot turned local dentist, who nursed the vision of an aviation hub in this corner of the northern plains. His experience flying the fragile Curtis Jennys during the Great War left him convinced that air travel could unlock new economic and social possibilities for Glacier County and beyond. If you think a man who drills teeth and flies bombers is an odd combination, you’re not alone. But that’s Montana for you--where the improbable and the practical often share the same lunch pail.

Construction on the airport took a serious turn during World War II. In July 1942, the 2nd Air Force authorized the building of a satellite base here, a move that would transform the sleepy grass strip into a sprawling military installation designed to train heavy bombardment crews. The military eyed Cut Bank for a reason: its flat terrain and clear skies made for excellent pilot training grounds, far from the crowded cities and enemy threats elsewhere.

The base was designed with three long concrete runways, each capable of accommodating the B-17 Flying Fortress bombers that would become infamous in Europe. The runways were carefully engineered and accompanied by parallel taxiways, hardstand parking for a dozen B-17s, and a massive 300-foot by 300-foot concrete apron. Not content with just runways and planes, the engineers built an aircraft hangar to shelter the birds from Montana’s unforgiving weather, and a host of support buildings, including officers’ quarters, barracks for enlisted men, and storage facilities. Even the storm drainage and sewer systems from that era remain functional today--a fact that might make a modern engineer faint in disbelief.

Among the airside improvements were beacons, weather vanes, and a fairly sophisticated runway lighting system for the time. The lights included obstruction, contact, and split filter range lights--the last of which were so important that two elite filter range lights were relocated to the airport’s historical district in 2014 to preserve their legacy.

The military presence, of course, brought economic activity but also a strange tension to Cut Bank. The town’s population swelled with soldiers, mechanics, and support staff, yet the wartime boom was always shadowed by the knowledge that these men might be sent somewhere else--or worse, overseas. The airport was not just a place for planes; it was a crossroads of hope and fear, anxiety and ambition.

After the war, the airport did not fade away like a ghost town’s hopes. Instead, it adapted to the new age. The administration building, completed in 1948, became the hub for Western Airlines’ DC-3 passengers, who flew routes connecting rural Montana to more populous hubs. The DC-3 itself was a workhorse of early commercial aviation, and seeing one taxi along the Cut Bank apron must have been a common and reassuring sight to locals.

The post-war period saw the airport’s facilities maintained and slowly modernized, though the pace was not without its fits and starts. The 1990s brought renewed attention to the airport’s historical and practical value. Local authorities, including the Cut Bank Airport Authority, the City of Cut Bank, and Glacier County, worked together to preserve the airport’s heritage while upgrading its infrastructure to meet Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) standards. The runways and taxiways were rebuilt or resurfaced to ensure safety and efficiency, capable of handling the mix of small planes, business jets, emergency aircraft, and military flights that traverse the northern plains today.

In 2007, the airport’s significance was formally recognized when the Cut Bank Municipal Airport and Army Air Base was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This designation was not just for a building or two but for the entire property, which includes runways, hangars, drainage systems, and even some of the original lighting equipment. It’s a rare honor for an airport and reflects the complex history stitched into the soil and concrete of this place.

Cut Bank airport has also earned a reputation as a service-oriented stopover for pilots heading north to Canada and Alaska. As a designated Port of Entry, it offers customs clearance on a two-hour notice, day or night, a convenience that has made it popular not just with local aviators but with those traversing the vast northern air corridors. Pilots appreciate the welcoming atmosphere--a phrase that might sound like a line from a tourism brochure, but in aviation circles, it means the staff know what they’re doing and won’t make you wait hours for a simple form.

The airport’s role as a crossroads is a living reality, hosting a mix of private planes, corporate jets, military aircraft, and emergency services. This variety speaks to the airport’s layered history--from barnstorming beginnings to wartime training base to modern international gateway.

It’s interesting to consider what Dr. McDonald might say if he could see the airport now. Perhaps he would recall his wartime experience and the early days of grass runways and small planes. Or maybe he’d quote from a 1943 letter by Colonel John C. McClure, commander of the 2nd Air Force’s satellite bases, who once wrote, “The establishment of this base at Cut Bank will provide a vital link in the training of bombardment crews necessary to the war effort.” Vital indeed, and it also provided a foundation for decades of commercial and community aviation.

The airport’s history reveals a story of adaptation and persistence. From a dentist’s dream to a wartime necessity to a post-war commuter hub and now an international airport with historical significance, Cut Bank has flown through nearly a century of American history. It may not be the largest or busiest airport in Montana, but it carries with it the marks of ambition, war, peace, and the ceaseless human urge to connect distant places by air.

See also

• Cut Bank International Airport at Cut Bank, Glacier County
• Cut Bank International Airport at Cut Bank, Glacier County
• The Lewis Overthrust Fault and Marias Pass at East Glacier Park, Glacier County