Gold Butte is a mountain summit located in Toole County, Montana, United States.
Description
Gold Butte is part of the Sweet Grass Hills and ranks as the fourth-highest peak in the range, and second-highest in the county. It is situated northeast of Shelby, Montana, and south of the Canada–United States border, on land administered by the Bureau of Land Management.Sweet Grass Hills, blm.gov, Retrieved 2023-07-22. Precipitation runoff from the mountain drains south to the Marias River and north to the Milk River. Topographic relief is significant as the summit rises over above the surrounding plains in less than two miles.
Geology Gold Butte is an exposed laccolith composed of diorite porphyry which was created by an igneous intrusion through older Cretaceous sedimentary rocks during the Eocene, about 50 million years ago. Dikes and sills radiate across the conical mass. Over time, erosion of the sedimentary rock has exposed the solidified laccolith which is more resistant to weathering. Minor amounts of gold and silver were produced by placer mining in a gulch on the north slope during the late-19th and early-20th centuries. The yield was likely less than 2,000 ounces of gold.
History The Sweet Grass Hills are sacred to the Blackfoot and other tribes.Rich Aarstad, Montana Place Names from Alzada to Zortman, Montana Historical Society, 2009, , p. 259. Mountain Chief, Calf Tail, and Bull Lodge experienced their respective vision quests on Gold Butte. The ghost town of "Gold Butte" was a gold-mining camp located on the mountain's northwest slope after gold was discovered here in 1884.Jerry Grant (2020), Grants Mining Districts of the Western United States: Volume 2, Xlibris Corporation, The landform's toponym has been officially adopted by the United States Board on Geographic Names.
Climate Based on the Köppen climate classification, Gold Butte is located in a semi-arid climate zone with long, cold, dry winters and hot summers with cool nights.Sweet Grass Hills Resource(s) Management Plan (RMP) Amendment and West HiLine Resource(s) Management Plan (RMP), Toole County, Liberty County: Environmental Impact Statement, 1996, p. 13, 19. Winter temperatures can drop below −10 °F with wind chill factors below −30 °F.
See also West Butte List of mountains in Montana
References
External links Weather forecast: Gold Butte