Ethridge is an unincorporated community in Toole County, Montana, United States. It is located west-northwest of Shelby. It is located on U.S. Route 2 and is a grain storage and shipping point on the Hi-Line. The community has a post office with ZIP code 59435.
Glacier Wind Farm is located south of Ethridge off U.S. Route 2, between the cities of Cut Bank and Shelby, and spans about 25,000 acres.
Sometime in early 1900, the Great Northern Railway station named Galt was renamed Ethridge.
The settlement of Ethridge was encouraged by the Homestead Act of 1862 and subsequent legislation that paved the way for farmers and ranchers seeking affordable lands in northern Montana's fertile plains. In 1909, the Homestead Act was enlarged, increasing the available claim to 320 acres, and leading to a large influx of homesteaders to the region that would become Ethridge. The homesteading rush peaked in 1910, when thousands of settlers arrived in Toole County and established the foundations that supported the area's development.
Ethridge's specific origins trace back to the Great Northern Railway, which extended its line through northern Montana in 1891, initially establishing a station named Galt, one and a half miles east of the present site, to service steam engines with a water tower, reservoir, and section house. In the early 1900s, the station was renamed Ethridge, replacing the previous name that honored Sir Alexander Galt, a prominent Canadian statesman and railway investor from Montreal. Relocation of the track took place, setting the stage for the establishment and growth of a formal community during the homestead rush.
By 1912, as the homestead rush intensified, George Norman of nearby Cut Bank formally laid out the Ethridge townsite adjacent to the railway tracks, fostering the rapid emergence of an agricultural center with basic infrastructure. That same year, the U.S. Post Office Department set up a post office in Ethridge, providing essential communication services to the growing population.