What Is a Butte? Towering Remnants of Erosion

A butte is a conspicuous isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top. Buttes are narrower than mesas — typically taller than they are wide — and represent an advanced stage of erosion where a mesa has been worn down to a narrow remnant.

Introduction

Buttes are among the most visually striking landforms on Earth. The towering red-rock buttes of Monument Valley on the Arizona-Utah border have become iconic symbols of the American West, appearing in countless films, photographs, and artworks.

How Buttes Form

• Starting Point: A mesa with a hard caprock layer
• Process: Continued erosion reduces the mesa's surface area
• Transition: When the landform becomes taller than it is wide, it is called a butte
• End Stage: Eventually the caprock collapses entirely, destroying the butte

A butte is essentially a mesa that has been eroded to a small fraction of its original size. As wind, water, and frost attack the sides of a mesa, blocks of caprock along the edges break off and fall. The flat summit gradually shrinks until the landform is taller than it is wide.

The rate of erosion depends on the rock types involved. Hard caprock like basalt or dense sandstone can protect a butte for millions of years, while softer lower layers of shale or mudstone erode more quickly, creating the steep, sometimes overhanging cliff faces that make buttes so dramatic.

Famous Buttes

• Monument Valley Buttes (AZ/UT): West Mitten, East Mitten, and Merrick Buttes
• Devils Tower (Wyoming): 265-meter volcanic neck, sacred to multiple tribes
• Courthouse Butte (Arizona): Red sandstone butte near Sedona
• Chimney Rock (Nebraska): Landmark on the Oregon Trail
• Bear Butte (South Dakota): Sacred site for the Lakota and Cheyenne

Monument Valley's buttes are perhaps the most photographed landforms in the world. The Mittens (named for their mitten-like silhouettes) and Merrick Butte rise 300 meters above the valley floor, their deep red Cutler sandstone glowing brilliantly at sunrise and sunset.

Devils Tower in Wyoming is a unique type of butte formed from an igneous intrusion (hardened magma) rather than sedimentary caprock. Its distinctive columnar jointing, with hundreds of hexagonal rock columns, was created as the magma cooled and contracted. It was the first US National Monument, designated in 1906.

Buttes in Culture

• Film: Monument Valley buttes featured in numerous John Ford westerns
• Sacred Sites: Many buttes are sacred to Native American peoples
• Navigation: Served as trail markers for settlers and Indigenous peoples
• Art: Iconic subjects for photographers and painters

Director John Ford made Monument Valley's buttes famous through films like Stagecoach (1939) and The Searchers (1956). The dramatic silhouettes of the Mitten Buttes against desert skies have since appeared in hundreds of films, commercials, and TV shows.

For the Navajo people, the buttes of Monument Valley are not merely scenic landmarks but sacred places with deep spiritual significance. Each formation has a Navajo name and associated stories. Bear Butte in South Dakota remains an active site of prayer and ceremony for the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne.

Key Facts

• A butte is a flat-topped, steep-sided hill that is taller than it is wide.
• Buttes form when mesas are reduced by erosion to narrow remnants.
• Monument Valley's buttes are the most famous examples, rising 300+ meters above the valley floor.
• Devils Tower in Wyoming is a volcanic butte formed from hardened magma.
• Buttes eventually erode completely once their protective caprock collapses.

Fun Facts

• The Mittens in Monument Valley are named because each has a thin "thumb" of rock separated from the main butte, resembling a pair of mittens.
• Devils Tower's columns are so regular that early geologists debated whether they were natural or man-made.
• Some buttes in the American Southwest contain fossils of marine creatures, evidence that these towering desert landforms were once at the bottom of an ancient sea.
• The word "butte" comes from a French word meaning "small hill" or "mound," though many buttes are hundreds of meters tall.

Final Thoughts

Buttes are erosion's dramatic sculptures, carved over millions of years from the remnants of once-vast plateaus and mesas. Their towering silhouettes against desert skies have made them enduring symbols of the American West and powerful landmarks for the Indigenous peoples who have lived among them for millennia.