Pilot Butte is a lava dome that was created from an extinct volcano located in Bend,

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idah ...

. It is a

cinder cone A cinder cone (or scoria cone) is a steep conical hill A conical hill (also cone or conical mountain) is a landform with a distinctly conical shape. It is usually isolated or rises above other surrounding foothills, and is often of volcanic ...

butte __NOTOC__ 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 a F ...

which rises nearly above the surrounding plains. Bend is one of six cities in the United States to have a

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates ...

within its boundaries. The other examples are

Mount Tabor Mount Tabor ( he, הר תבור) (Har Tavor) is located in Lower Galilee, Israel, at the eastern end of the Jezreel Valley, west of the Sea of Galilee. In the Hebrew Bible (Joshua, Judges), Mount Tabor is the site of the Battle of Mount T ...

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populou ...

, Jackson Volcano in

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the Capital city, capital of and the List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, Mississippi, ...

, Diamond Head in

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the islan ...

Glassford Hill Glassford (; locally known as ''The Glesart'' ) is a small village located south of Hamilton, and north-east of Strathaven, in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It has a population of roughly 500–600 people. Features include the 19th-century Pa ...

in Prescott Valley and Pilot Knob in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

. The Pilot Butte State Scenic Viewpoint, presented as a gift to the State of Oregon in 1928, is a Bend icon. Pilot Butte itself is a popular hiking destination with two trails to the summit, each gaining about in elevation. There is also a trail around the base of the butte. A scenic road also winds up and around the cone. In 2018, the park was the most visited Oregon state park east of the

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

. From the top, the entire city of Bend is visible, as well as several major Cascade peaks. Most prominent are the Three Sisters, Broken Top, and

Mount Bachelor Mount Bachelor, formerly named Bachelor Butte, is a dormant stratovolcano atop a shield volcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the Cascade Range of central Oregon. Named Mount Bachelor because it stands apart from the nearby Three Sisters, i ...

, which are located about to the west. The City of Bend launches

Fourth of July Independence Day ( colloquially the Fourth of July) is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the Declaration of Independence, which was ratified by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing the United State ...

fireworks from Pilot Butte each year.

Geology

Pilot Butte formed approximately 188,000 years ago from the eruption of a volcanic vent. The rock has normal magnetic polarity, implying that it was laid down after the most recent geomagnetic reversal about 780,000 years ago. The butte's light-colored soil contains some ash from the eruption of Mount Mazama (which formed

Crater Lake Crater Lake (Klamath: ''Giiwas'') is a volcanic crater lake in south-central Oregon in the western United States. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and is famous for its deep blue color and water clarity. The lake partly fills ...

Ecology

The most common tree on Pilot Butte is Western juniper, which is sometimes parasitized by witches' broom

mistletoe Mistletoe is the common name for obligate hemiparasitic plants in the order Santalales. They are attached to their host tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they extract water and nutrients from the host plant ...

. Also abundant are

sagebrush Sagebrush is the common name of several woody and herbaceous species of plants in the genus '' Artemisia''. The best known sagebrush is the shrub '' Artemisia tridentata''. Sagebrushes are native to the North American west. Following is an al ...

and the similar plants bitterbrush and rabbitbrush. The

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species adv ...

cheatgrass is likely the most common grass on the butte. Wildflowers that appear include sand lily,

rock cress Rockcress is a common name used for several similar genera of flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae: *'' Arabis'', with primarily Old World species *''Arabidopsis ''Arabidopsis'' (rockcress) is a genus in the family Brassicaceae. They ar ...

penstemon ''Penstemon'' , the beardtongues, is a large genus of roughly 250 species of flowering plants native mostly to the Nearctic, but with a few species also found in the North American portion of the Neotropics. It is the largest genus of flowering ...

, paintbrush,

buckwheat Buckwheat (''Fagopyrum esculentum''), or common buckwheat, is a flowering plant in the knotweed family Polygonaceae cultivated for its grain-like seeds and as a cover crop. The name "buckwheat" is used for several other species, such as '' Fago ...

yarrow ''Achillea millefolium'', commonly known as yarrow () or common yarrow, is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. Other common names include old man's pepper, devil's nettle, sanguinary, milfoil, soldier's woundwort, and thousand seal. The ...

, blazing star,

mariposa lily ''Calochortus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the lily family. The group includes herbaceous, perennial and bulbous species, all native to North America (primarily the Western United States). The genus ''Calochortus'' includes mariposas ...

, lupine, and

monkeyflower Monkey flower can refer to: *Several genera of plant family Phrymaceae, including: ** '' Diplacus'' ** '' Erythranthe'' ** '' Mimulus'' *Various snapdragon-like Lamiales, including: ** '' Linaria vulgaris'' ** '' Phyllocarpus septentrionalis'', mon ...

Ponderosa pine ''Pinus ponderosa'', commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, western yellow-pine, or filipinus pine is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is t ...

and

red currant Red currant is a common name for several plants and may refer to: * '' Ribes rubrum'', a shrub native to western Europe and widely cultivated * '' Ribes sanguineum'', a shrub native to North America * '' Searsia chirindensis'', a tree native to ...

can also be found. Birds and deer feed on some of the plants, and some animals use snags as shelter.

History

Pilot Butte was named in 1851 by Thomas Clark, leader of the first party of European settlers to camp on the future site of Bend. The Clark wagon train approached the area from the east after recovering from the Clark massacre. The butte was gifted to State of Oregon as a public park in 1928 by the daughter of Terrence Hardington Foley, the leader of the local Elks lodge until his death in a 1926 automobile accident, to whom the park is dedicated on a memorial tablet. In 1983, a

drive-in A drive-in is a facility (such as a restaurant or movie theater) where one can drive in with an automobile for service. At a drive-in restaurant, for example, customers park their vehicles and are usually served by staff who walk or rollersk ...

hamburger restaurant called Pilot Butte Drive-In was opened next to the butte on Greenwood Avenue. It remained open until 2020, when it was closed in response to

COVID-19 lockdowns Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of non-pharmaceutical interventions colloquially known as lockdowns (encompassing stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, and similar societal restrictions) have been implemented in numerous count ...

. The property was sold and later reopened as a pizza, beer, and poker establishment, known as the Pilot Butte Taproom or the Bend Poker Room. In 2010, a trail was constructed around the base of the butte. The park had 949,968 annual visits in 2018, making it the most visited Oregon State Park east of the

and the ninth most popular in the state.

Gallery

References

External links

* * *
Pilot Butte State Scenic Viewpoint
from

The Oregon Encyclopedia The ''Oregon Encyclopedia of History and Culture'' is a collaborative encyclopedia focused on the history and culture of the U.S. state of Oregon. Description The encyclopedia is a project of Portland State University's History Department, thOr ...

{{authority control 1928 establishments in Oregon Bend, Oregon Buttes of Oregon Cascade Range Cascade Volcanoes Cinder cones of the United States Extinct volcanoes Mountains of Deschutes County, Oregon Mountains of Oregon Municipal parks in Oregon Parks in Deschutes County, Oregon Pleistocene volcanoes State parks of Oregon Tourist attractions in Bend, Oregon Volcanoes of Deschutes County, Oregon Volcanoes of Oregon Volcanoes of the United States de:Pilot Butte State Scenic Viewpoint