Wild Horse Port to resume winter hours

Staff and wire report

U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced that the hours at the Port of Wild Horse north of Havre on Montana Secondary Highway 232 will resume winter hours on Oct. 1. The port will operate from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

The port has limited hours, running 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the summer with the further reduced hours in the winter.

Wild Horse also is a permit port, which means a permit is required to import commercial merchandise.

A committee comprising residents of north-central Montana and Alberta has been trying for more than a decade to have the port upgraded to a commercial port and to extend its hours. The push is for 24-hour-a-day operation, which has been scaled back for the moment to have extended hours in the winter.

The Area Port of Sweetgrass is ready to review applications and issue permits for commercial merchandise to be imported into the United States. Permits require advance approval; contact the Supervisory Entry Officer at 406-791-6115, for more information.

The closest commercial ports to Wild Horse are Sweetgrass, Montana, and Raymond, Montana. They are open 24 hours per day, 365 days a year. Permits are not required to import commercial merchandise into the United States through Raymond or Sweetgrass. The Port of Raymond, located north of Plentywood on Highway 16, is approximately 300 miles east of Wild Horse. The Port of Sweetgrass, located on Interstate 15 north of Shelby, is about 100 miles west of Wild Horse.

  Importing/exporting commercial merchandise information and port information are found on the Trade tab of https://www.cbp.gov/.