Hoodoo Butte is a

cinder cone A cinder cone or scoria cone is a steep, volcanic cone, conical landform of loose pyroclastic rock, pyroclastic fragments, such as volcanic ash, clinkers, or scoria that has been built around a volcanic vent. The pyroclastic fragments are forme ...

butte In geomorphology, a butte ( ) is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and table (landform), tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from the French l ...

in the

Cascade Range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington (state), Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as m ...

of northern

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, located near Santiam Pass. Immediately to the east lies Hayrick Butte, a prime example of a

tuya A tuya is a flat-topped, steep-sided volcano formed when lava erupts through a thick glacier or ice sheet. They are rare worldwide, being confined to regions which were covered by glaciers and had active volcanism during the same period. As lava ...

; the two mountains' names were likely mistaken for each other, but stuck with them over time. The area has been subjected to a number of historic fires. Hoodoo is sometimes considered a subfeature of the Mount Washington

shield volcano A shield volcano is a type of volcano named for its low profile, resembling a shield lying on the ground. It is formed by the eruption of highly fluid (low viscosity) lava, which travels farther and forms thinner flows than the more viscous lava ...

, and it forms part of the Sisters Reach, which extends from South Cinder Peak to Crane Prairie Reservoir, running for . This region has a high vent density, with many

mafic A mafic mineral or rock is a silicate mineral or igneous rock rich in magnesium and iron. Most mafic minerals are dark in color, and common rock-forming mafic minerals include olivine, pyroxene, amphibole, and biotite. Common mafic rocks include ...

(rich in magnesium and iron) volcanoes of Pleistocene to Holocene age, such as Hoodoo. While Hoodoo has an intact summit crater that was blocked from erosion by glaciers, it has an irregular topography, giving it an open appearance. A ski area, also named Hoodoo, is located on the northwest through northeast flanks of the cone, and includes five

chairlifts An elevated passenger ropeway, or chairlift, is a type of aerial lift, which consists of a continuously circulating steel wire rope loop strung between two end terminals and usually over intermediate towers. They are the primary on-hill tr ...

. Other recreational activities popular in the area include

snowshoeing Snowshoes are specialized outdoor gear for walking over snow. Their large footprint spreads the user's weight out and allows them to travel largely on top of rather than through snow. Adjustable bindings attach them to appropriate winter footw ...

and

snowmobiling A snowmobile, also known as a snowmachine (chiefly Alaskan), motor sled (chiefly Canadian), motor sledge, skimobile, snow scooter, or simply a sled is a motorized vehicle designed for winter travel and recreation on snow. Their engines normally ...

during the winter, and fishing, hiking, camping,

mountain biking Mountain biking (MTB) is a sport of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, usually using specially designed mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes but incorporate features designed to enhance durability ...

windsurfing Windsurfing is a wind-propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the Californian aerospace and surf culture. Windsurfing gain ...

, and

water skiing Water skiing (also waterskiing or water-skiing) is a surface water sport in which an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation over a body of water, skimming the surface on one or two skis. The sport requires sufficien ...

popular during the summer season.

Geography

Hoodoo Butte lies in Linn County, in the northern part of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

. With an elevation of , it has a large, rounded shape, rising about above the surrounding platform. The volcano lies northwest of the city of Bend and about southeast of

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

Physical geography

In 1967, a stand replacement fire (a fire that kills most if not all of the living upper canopy layer in the forest and initiates succession or regrowth) burned through of the surrounding Santiam Pass area. It reached the vegetation on the eastern and southern flanks of Hoodoo Butte, leaving patches of trees compared to the denser forest on the northern slope. Forest fires tore through the region again during the summer of 2003. Soil on the mountain ranges from shallow to moderately deep with

loam Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–si ...

, and tends to be loose and cindery.

Ecology

Bird species near Hoodoo include

woodpecker Woodpeckers are part of the bird family (biology), family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar and the extreme ...

s and

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche ...

s. Deer and

American black bear The American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), or simply black bear, is a species of medium-sized bear which is Endemism, endemic to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most widely distributed bear species. It is an omnivore, with ...

s frequent the surrounding area.

Geology

Hoodoo Butte lies near the Santiam Pass area, in the eastern segment of the

known as the High Cascades, which trends north–south. Constructed towards the end of the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

epoch, these mountains are underlain by more ancient volcanoes that subsided due to parallel north–south

faulting In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

in the surrounding region. In the region stretching south from Mount Jefferson to Santiam Pass,

es dominate, forming a broad ridge with

s. Eruptions at these vents have produced rocks with compositions ranging from

basaltic andesite Basaltic andesite is a volcanic rock that is intermediate in composition between basalt and andesite. It is composed predominantly of augite and plagioclase. Basaltic andesite can be found in volcanoes around the world, including in Central Ameri ...

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomina ...

and

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

lavas. The majority of rock in the region consists of normally polarized material less than 730,000 years old. Hoodoo Butte is part of the Sisters Reach, which extends from South Cinder Peak to Crane Prairie Reservoir, running for . With at least 466 volcanoes active during the Quaternary, it has a high vent density, with many

(rich in magnesium and iron) volcanoes of Pleistocene to Holocene age. Hoodoo Butte is one of the larger mafic volcanoes, along with

Three Fingered Jack Three Fingered Jack is a summit of a shield volcano of the Cascade Range in the U.S. state of Oregon. Formed during the Pleistocene epoch, the mountain consists mainly of basaltic andesite lava and was heavily glaciated in the past. While ot ...

, North Sister, and the vents of the Mount Bachelor chain. Sometimes considered a subfeature of the Mount Washington shield volcano, Hoodoo forms one of several glaciated remnants of Pleistocene volcanoes in the region, other nearby examples including Maxwell Butte and Cache Mountain. It is a cinder cone and possesses an intact summit crater, since the neighboring andesite

lava dome In volcanology, a lava dome is a circular, mound-shaped protrusion resulting from the slow extrusion of viscous lava from a volcano. Dome-building eruptions are common, particularly in convergent plate boundary settings. Around 6% of eruptions ...

of Hayrick Butte prevented Pleistocene glaciers from reaching Hoodoo's summit. The crater is open to the east as a result of its irregular topography, which led to uneven distribution of ejected material such that most of the volcanic rock that forms the edifice was deposited elsewhere. The cinder cone is surrounded by

volcanic ash Volcanic ash consists of fragments of rock, mineral crystals, and volcanic glass, produced during volcanic eruptions and measuring less than 2 mm (0.079 inches) in diameter. The term volcanic ash is also often loosely used to r ...

from the Sand Mountain Cones which was moved by water, and some of this ash forms a layer on the floor of the summit crater.

Human history

According to one local story, a cartographer accidentally switched the names for Hoodoo Butte and the nearby tuya Hayrick Butte. The word "hoodoo" refers to rock buttresses like those observed at the nearby Hayrick Butte, while "hayrick" is a synonym for haystack, a more fitting name for Hoodoo Butte, which has a profile that resembles a haystack shape. Whether or not this error actually occurred remains unclear, but the names remain to present day. The name Hoodoo Butte was confirmed by the on November 28, 1980. The top of Hoodoo Butte has electronic communication relay sites, which are owned by

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

and Bend Telecommunications.

Recreation

The Hoodoo ski area, a popular winter sports destination, sits on Hoodoo Butte. It encompasses with 34 trail runs, five

, a

snow tubing Tubing, also known as inner tubing, bumper tubing, towed tubing, biscuiting (in New Zealand), or kite tubing, is a recreational activity where an individual rides on top of an inner tube, either on water, snow, or through the air. The tubes thems ...

park, night skiing, lodges, rental and repair stores, and a day-care building. First built in 1938, the original ski area was supported by a group funded by Ed Thurston of

Eugene Eugene may refer to: People and fictional characters * Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Gene Eugene, stage name of Canadian born actor, record producer, engineer, composer and musi ...

. Following

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the ski area embarked on improvements, including lodging and chairlifts. The oldest ski area in the Central Cascades, the Hoodoo area offers terrains for all levels of skiing. It closes to off-road motorized vehicle use from November 1 through May 15. In addition to skiing,

and

are popular winter activities in the area, with fishing, hiking, camping, and

popular during the summer season. The Hoodoo Ski Bowl offers scenic views of the local region. Fishing is a popular recreational activity in the area, particularly for

brook Brook may refer to: Computing *Brook, a programming language for GPU programming based on C *Brook+, an explicit data-parallel C compiler *BrookGPU, a framework for GPGPU programming People * Brook (surname) *People with the given name Brook, ...

and

cutthroat trout The cutthroat trout (''Oncorhynchus clarkii'' clade) is a clade of four fish species of the Family (biology), family Salmonidae native to cold-water Tributary, tributaries of the Pacific Ocean, Rocky Mountains, and Great Basin in North America. ...

at Big Lake, south via the ski area's access road. Recreational boating,

, and

are also common during the summer.

Notes

* Other sources list the elevation at .

References

Sources

* * * * * * * {{Volcanoes of Oregon Buttes of Oregon Cascade Range Cascade Volcanoes Cinder cones of the United States Mountains of Oregon Subduction volcanoes Volcanoes of Linn County, Oregon Volcanoes of Oregon Quaternary cinder cones