Carter, Montana
15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1890 and the latest in 1984. It stands in the Fort Benton census division. It lies in ZIP code area 59420. The Survey maps it on the Carter quadrangle. 65 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 3,123 feet above sea level.
Population over time
3 figuresCarter grew from 62 to 65 between 2000 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 62 | |
| 2010 | 58 | -4 (-6%) |
| 2020 | 65 | +7 (+12%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 15 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1890 USGS Fort Benton quadrangle1:250000
- 1892 USGS Fort Benton quadrangle1:250000
- 1897 USGS Fort Benton quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1953 USGS Carter quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1954 USGS Great Falls quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1957 USGS Great Falls quadrangle1:250000
- 1984 USGS Fort Benton quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
1 since 2018Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Carter in 2018, burning under an acre in total. 1 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Natural | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 August 2018 | Natural | under an acre | Northeastern Land Office | not named |
Storms near this place
25 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Carter in 25 storm reports between 1993 and 2024: 12 hail, 11 thunderstorm wind, 2 heavy rain. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 1993 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carter | $5,000 | Trees and power lines down. |
| August 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carter | - | A spotter traveling northbound on US-87 noted two snapped power poles near mile marker 31. Power outages were confirmed in the area. |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carter | - | Reports some tree branch damage from strong winds. Small hail also observed along with some water on road. Wind speed and gust estimate not reported. |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carter | - | Trained spotter reports estimated wind gusts near 60 mph in Carter. |
| July 2019 | Heavy Rain | Carter | - | Public reported 1.6 inches of rain in less than 10 minutes. |
| August 2013 | Hail | Carter | - | Hail measuring 1.00 inches (quarter sized) was reported 11 miles ENE of The Knees, MT. |
| June 2012 | Hail | Carter | - | Hail of 1.00 inches was reported 6 miles W of Carter. |
| June 2012 | Hail | Carter | - | Tennis ball sized hail, measuring 2.5 inches, was reported 5 miles NE of Carter. Winds to 70 mph, debris, and blown out windshields were also reported. |
| June 2012 | Hail | Carter | - | Two inch hail was reported 1 mi S of Carter. |
| July 2011 | Hail | Carter | - | A thunderstorm dropped 1.25 inch diameter hail at Carter 11N. |
| July 2010 | Hail | Carter | - | A thunderstorm dropped 1 inch diameter hail west of Carter. |
| July 2007 | Hail | Carter | - | A severe thunderstorm dropped .75 inch diameter hail at Carter 14W. The storm downed several large tree limbs and started a grass fire that burned between 50 and 100 acres at a location 10 miles northeast of here. |
| July 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carter | - | A severe thunderstorm produced a wind gust to 60 mph at Carter 11N. |
| July 2002 | Hail | Carter | - | A severe thunderstorm produced 0.75 inch hail at Carter 8NW. |
| July 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carter | - | Actual event location Carter 11 N. |
| July 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carter | - | Actual event location Carter 11 N. |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carter | - | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Heavy Rain | Carter | - | no account filed |
| April 2003 | Hail | Carter | - | no account filed |
| May 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carter | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Hail | Carter | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Hail | Carter | - | no account filed |
| August 2003 | Hail | Carter | - | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carter | - | no account filed |
| September 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carter | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Floweree | 5.2 miles | 18 | |
| Tunis | 6.3 miles | 13 | |
| Lander Crossing | 9.6 miles | 16 | |
| Kershaw | 11.7 miles | 14 | |
| Shepherd Crossing | 12.5 miles | 16 | |
| Waltham | 15.0 miles | 16 | |
| Fort Benton | 15.5 miles | 14 | |
| Highwood | 16.2 miles | 15 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Carter | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q961077 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 769624. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.






