24/7 Trauma and Biohazard Cleanup in Whitefish, MT

Whitefish is an incorporated city in Flathead County in northwestern Montana, about 30 miles south of the west entrance to Glacier National Park.

The city's name in Salish is epɫx̣ʷy̓u, meaning "has whitefish," and the Kootenai people lived in the area for thousands of years before settlers arrived.

Whitefish took shape after the Great Northern Railway rerouted its main line through the townsite in 1904 to avoid the steep Haskell Pass route, making the new town a railroad division point.

The townsite was platted in 1903, Whitefish incorporated in 1905, and it formally became a city once its population passed 1,000 by 1910.

Early Whitefish was nicknamed "Stumptown" because clearing the forested townsite for the railroad and town left tree stumps standing in its streets.

The 2020 census counted 7,751 residents in Whitefish, up from 6,357 in 2010, a gain of about 22 percent in a decade of resort-driven growth.

The 2020 census counted 3,620 households in Whitefish and 4,650 housing units, of which about 22 percent stood vacant, reflecting the city's many seasonal and second homes.

Whitefish Lake, at the edge of town, is a natural lake about 5.8 miles long and up to 233 feet deep, and the Whitefish River flows through the city on its way to the Flathead River.

Whitefish Mountain Resort on Big Mountain opened on December 14, 1947, when a new T-bar lift carried skiers up slopes that local residents had helped build with donated labor.

The historic Whitefish Depot is a major stop on Amtrak's Empire Builder route, and in 2006 more than 68,000 passengers boarded or left trains there, many headed for the ski resort or Glacier National Park.