Thunder Butte
Encyclopedia
Thunder Butte is a prominent butte
landmark located in the northwest corner of Ziebach County, South Dakota
, in the United States
. Thunder Butte is a landform
that can be seen for many miles in every direction, and serves now (as it has in the past) as an important orientation
point for area residents, or a navigational aide for travelers crossing the surrounding plains.
. Its summit is 2,733 feet (833.02 meters) above sea level, and rises some three to five hundred feet above the surrounding grasslands. Thunder Butte is the highest point in Ziebach County. Thunder Butte lies on the drainage divide between the Grand River
, to the north, and the Moreau River
to the south; both rivers drain eastward to the Missouri
.
The butte is located about 75 miles west of the Missouri River
, and about 105 miles northeast of the Black Hills
, (both distances as the crow flies
). The geographical coordinates of Thunder Butte (Wakinyan Paha) are Latitude N 45.319978 (49 19 12 N) and Longitude W -101.880704 (-101 52 51 W). The butte lies in the Southeast quarter of Section 26 of Township 16 North, Range 18 East.
population. The prominent landmark is clearly visible from two surrounding reservations of the Lakota and Dakota Sioux people; the butte is within the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation
which has Lakota people from four bands/tribes of the Lakota nation, and the butte is only a short distance from the southern boundary of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation
which has people of the Lakota and Dakota nations
age sedimentary rock known as the Ludlow Formation. Lower elevations of surroundings grasslands/plains are underlain by the softer and more easily eroded Hell Creek sedimentary rock. The cap of Ludlow Formation rock is an erosional remnant, and other buttes in this area of western South Dakota are also capped by similar Ludlow Formation erosional remnants. Geological maps are available online, which show Thunder Butte, and its cap of the Ludlow Formation; see the 15 minute (1:62,500 scale) Glad Valley geologic map, which can be viewed and downloaded from the SD Geological Surveys website. The regional geological aspect can also be viewed on the Geologic map of South Dakota, but Thunder Butte's cap of Ludlow Formation rock is too small a feature to be shown on the regional map with its larger 1:500,000 scale.
, a mountain man/trapper with the 1823 party of William Henry Ashley
and Andrew Henry
, which was traveling overland from Fort Kiowa
to Fort Henry at the mouth of the Yellowstone River
. In August, 1823, on the south fork of the Grand River
( located north west of Thunder Butte, in Perkins County, South Dakota
) Hugh Glass encountered a grizzly bear
and was so badly maul
ed that he was left for dead by the others in his party. Reviving, he found himself alone and unable to travel except by crawling. Hugh Glass crawled from the Grand River
to the Moreau River
and then on south to the Cheyenne River
, a distance of some 80 to 100 miles. This "crawl" consumed six weeks. After reaching the Cheyenne River
, Hugh Glass recuperated for a time and then fashioned a crude raft
on which he floated down the Cheyenne River
and Missouri River
to Fort Kiowa
. The Grand-to-Moreau-to-Cheyenne River "crawl" took Glass by Thunder Butte on the divide between the Moreau and Grand Rivers, and factual and fictional accounts note that in making his crawl to the Cheyenne River
, Hugh Glass navigated by watching Thunder Butte which was first ahead, then alongside, then behind him.
Thunder Butte has been commemorated by white settlers who saw beauty and majesty in the prominent landmark. The following poem was written by G. M. Drummond, who was appointed Zeibach County Superintendent of Schools in 1912 and elected in 1927. A pioneer and long time resident of the area, Mr. Drummond died in 1973.
"Thunder Butte"
In northern Ziebach County
Stands Thunder Butte alone
The monarch of surrounding hills ...
With a diadem of stone!
He stood there countless ages,
While red men roamed the plains
And Buffalo and antelope
Grazed over vast domains.
There still he stands undaunted,
While seasons come and go,
Unchanged alike by summer sun
Or by the Winter snow.
The Persepolis of Persia
Stood not more dignified,
Nor the Acropolis of Athens
In its historic pride!
Rule on, Majestic Mountain!
May nothing ever mar
Your innate rugged beauty,
That may be seen afar.
G. M. Drummond
From, “South Dakota's Ziebach County, History of the Prairie” published in 1982 by the Ziebach County Historical Society in Dupree, SD.
Butte
A butte is a conspicuous isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; it is smaller than mesas, plateaus, and table landform tables. In some regions, such as the north central and northwestern United States, the word is used for any hill...
landmark located in the northwest corner of Ziebach County, South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
, in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Thunder Butte is a landform
Landform
A landform or physical feature in the earth sciences and geology sub-fields, comprises a geomorphological unit, and is largely defined by its surface form and location in the landscape, as part of the terrain, and as such, is typically an element of topography...
that can be seen for many miles in every direction, and serves now (as it has in the past) as an important orientation
Orientation (mental)
Orientation is a function of the mind involving awareness of three dimensions: time, place and person. Problems with orientation lead to disorientation, and can be due to various conditions, from delirium to intoxication...
point for area residents, or a navigational aide for travelers crossing the surrounding plains.
Geography
Thunder Butte was formed by differential erosionDifferential weathering
Differential weathering is the difference in degree of discoloration, disintegration, etc., of rocks of different kinds exposed to the same environment...
. Its summit is 2,733 feet (833.02 meters) above sea level, and rises some three to five hundred feet above the surrounding grasslands. Thunder Butte is the highest point in Ziebach County. Thunder Butte lies on the drainage divide between the Grand River
Grand River (South Dakota)
The Grand River is a tributary of the Missouri River in North Dakota and South Dakota in the United States. The length of the combined branch is 110 mi...
, to the north, and the Moreau River
Moreau River
The Moreau River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 200 mi long, in South Dakota in the United States.It rises in two forks in northwestern South Dakota, in the Badlands of Harding County. The North Fork rises approximately 10 mi northeast of Crow Buttes...
to the south; both rivers drain eastward to the Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
.
The butte is located about 75 miles west of the Missouri River
Missouri River
The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...
, and about 105 miles northeast of the Black Hills
Black Hills
The Black Hills are a small, isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, USA. Set off from the main body of the Rocky Mountains, the region is something of a geological anomaly—accurately described as an "island of...
, (both distances as the crow flies
As the crow flies
"As the crow flies" or beelining is an idiom for the shortest route between two points; the geodesic distance.An example is the great-circle distance between Key West and Pensacola, at either end of the U.S...
). The geographical coordinates of Thunder Butte (Wakinyan Paha) are Latitude N 45.319978 (49 19 12 N) and Longitude W -101.880704 (-101 52 51 W). The butte lies in the Southeast quarter of Section 26 of Township 16 North, Range 18 East.
Native Americans and Thunder Butte
Thunder Butte is “Wakinyan Paha” in the language of the Lakota people, to whom the butte has historic, religious and cultural significance. In traditional Lakota lore, thunder originated on the butte. The Lakota Sioux tribe has resided in this area since about 1776, after driving out the Cheyenne, (who had driven out the Kiowa, who had in their turn driven off previous Native American possessors.) A high concentration of Lakota Sioux people still reside around the Thunder Butte landmark -- Ziebach County, where Thunder Butte is located, has a 72.29% Native AmericanNative Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
population. The prominent landmark is clearly visible from two surrounding reservations of the Lakota and Dakota Sioux people; the butte is within the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation
Cheyenne River Indian Reservation
The Cheyenne River Indian Reservation was created by the United States in 1889 by breaking up the Great Sioux Reservation, following its victory over the Lakota in a series of wars in the 1870s. The reservation covers almost all of Dewey and Ziebach counties in South Dakota...
which has Lakota people from four bands/tribes of the Lakota nation, and the butte is only a short distance from the southern boundary of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation
Standing Rock Indian Reservation
The Standing Rock Indian Reservation is a Lakota, Yanktonai and Dakota Indian reservation in North Dakota and South Dakota in the United States...
which has people of the Lakota and Dakota nations
Geology
Thunder Butte has an erosion resistant cap of harder PaleocenePaleocene
The Paleocene or Palaeocene, the "early recent", is a geologic epoch that lasted from about . It is the first epoch of the Palaeogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era...
age sedimentary rock known as the Ludlow Formation. Lower elevations of surroundings grasslands/plains are underlain by the softer and more easily eroded Hell Creek sedimentary rock. The cap of Ludlow Formation rock is an erosional remnant, and other buttes in this area of western South Dakota are also capped by similar Ludlow Formation erosional remnants. Geological maps are available online, which show Thunder Butte, and its cap of the Ludlow Formation; see the 15 minute (1:62,500 scale) Glad Valley geologic map, which can be viewed and downloaded from the SD Geological Surveys website. The regional geological aspect can also be viewed on the Geologic map of South Dakota, but Thunder Butte's cap of Ludlow Formation rock is too small a feature to be shown on the regional map with its larger 1:500,000 scale.
In literature
Literary references to Thunder Butte appear in the story of Hugh GlassHugh Glass
Hugh Glass was an American fur trapper and frontiersman noted for his exploits in the American West during the first third of the 19th century....
, a mountain man/trapper with the 1823 party of William Henry Ashley
William Henry Ashley
William Henry Ashley was a pioneering fur trader, entrepreneur, and politician. Though a native of Virginia, Ashley had already moved to St. Genevieve in what was then called Louisiana, when it was purchased by the United States from France in 1803...
and Andrew Henry
Andrew Henry (fur trader)
Major Andrew Henry was an American fur trader who, with William H. Ashley started the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in 1822...
, which was traveling overland from Fort Kiowa
Fort Kiowa
Fort Kiowa was an 19th century American Fur Company trading post on the Missouri River near Oacoma, South Dakota. Fort Kiowa was the destination of Hugh Glass' several hundred mile crawl. The site is now underwater....
to Fort Henry at the mouth of the Yellowstone River
Yellowstone River
The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately long, in the western United States. Considered the principal tributary of the upper Missouri, the river and its tributaries drain a wide area stretching from the Rocky Mountains in the vicinity of the Yellowstone National...
. In August, 1823, on the south fork of the Grand River
Grand River (South Dakota)
The Grand River is a tributary of the Missouri River in North Dakota and South Dakota in the United States. The length of the combined branch is 110 mi...
( located north west of Thunder Butte, in Perkins County, South Dakota
Perkins County, South Dakota
As of the census of 2000, there were 3,363 people, 1,429 households, and 937 families residing in the county. The population density was 1.2 people per square mile . There were 1,854 housing units at an average density of 0.6 per square mile...
) Hugh Glass encountered a grizzly bear
Grizzly Bear
The grizzly bear , also known as the silvertip bear, the grizzly, or the North American brown bear, is a subspecies of brown bear that generally lives in the uplands of western North America...
and was so badly maul
Maul
A splitting maul also known as a block buster, or block splitter is a heavy, long-handled hammer used for splitting a piece of wood along its grain. One side of its head is like a sledgehammer, and the other side is like an axe.- Wedged mauls :...
ed that he was left for dead by the others in his party. Reviving, he found himself alone and unable to travel except by crawling. Hugh Glass crawled from the Grand River
Grand River (South Dakota)
The Grand River is a tributary of the Missouri River in North Dakota and South Dakota in the United States. The length of the combined branch is 110 mi...
to the Moreau River
Moreau River
The Moreau River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 200 mi long, in South Dakota in the United States.It rises in two forks in northwestern South Dakota, in the Badlands of Harding County. The North Fork rises approximately 10 mi northeast of Crow Buttes...
and then on south to the Cheyenne River
Cheyenne River
The Cheyenne River is a tributary of the Missouri River in the U.S. states of Wyoming and South Dakota. It is approximately 295 mi long and drains an area of...
, a distance of some 80 to 100 miles. This "crawl" consumed six weeks. After reaching the Cheyenne River
Cheyenne River
The Cheyenne River is a tributary of the Missouri River in the U.S. states of Wyoming and South Dakota. It is approximately 295 mi long and drains an area of...
, Hugh Glass recuperated for a time and then fashioned a crude raft
Raft
A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is the most basic of boat design, characterized by the absence of a hull...
on which he floated down the Cheyenne River
Cheyenne River
The Cheyenne River is a tributary of the Missouri River in the U.S. states of Wyoming and South Dakota. It is approximately 295 mi long and drains an area of...
and Missouri River
Missouri River
The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...
to Fort Kiowa
Fort Kiowa
Fort Kiowa was an 19th century American Fur Company trading post on the Missouri River near Oacoma, South Dakota. Fort Kiowa was the destination of Hugh Glass' several hundred mile crawl. The site is now underwater....
. The Grand-to-Moreau-to-Cheyenne River "crawl" took Glass by Thunder Butte on the divide between the Moreau and Grand Rivers, and factual and fictional accounts note that in making his crawl to the Cheyenne River
Cheyenne River
The Cheyenne River is a tributary of the Missouri River in the U.S. states of Wyoming and South Dakota. It is approximately 295 mi long and drains an area of...
, Hugh Glass navigated by watching Thunder Butte which was first ahead, then alongside, then behind him.
Thunder Butte has been commemorated by white settlers who saw beauty and majesty in the prominent landmark. The following poem was written by G. M. Drummond, who was appointed Zeibach County Superintendent of Schools in 1912 and elected in 1927. A pioneer and long time resident of the area, Mr. Drummond died in 1973.
"Thunder Butte"
In northern Ziebach County
Stands Thunder Butte alone
The monarch of surrounding hills ...
With a diadem of stone!
He stood there countless ages,
While red men roamed the plains
And Buffalo and antelope
Grazed over vast domains.
There still he stands undaunted,
While seasons come and go,
Unchanged alike by summer sun
Or by the Winter snow.
The Persepolis of Persia
Stood not more dignified,
Nor the Acropolis of Athens
In its historic pride!
Rule on, Majestic Mountain!
May nothing ever mar
Your innate rugged beauty,
That may be seen afar.
G. M. Drummond
From, “South Dakota's Ziebach County, History of the Prairie” published in 1982 by the Ziebach County Historical Society in Dupree, SD.