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 an important orientation point for area residents, or a navigational aide for travelers crossing the surrounding plains. The prominent butte gives its name to a small community at its base, and to a small creek that runs into the Moreau River.
Geography
Thunder Butte was formed by differential erosion. Its summit is 2,733 feet 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,. The geographical coordinates of Thunder Butte are Latitude N 45.319978 and Longitude W -101.880704. 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, 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 American 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
Geology
Thunder Butte has an erosion resistant cap of harder Paleocene 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 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 Glass, 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, Hugh Glass encountered a grizzly bear and was so badly mauled 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 longtime resident of the area, Mr. Drummond died in 1973. "Thunder Butte"
From, “South Dakota's Ziebach County, History of the Prairie” published in 1982 by the Ziebach County Historical Society in Dupree, SD.
Other Geographical Features and Locations Named After Thunder Butte
Thunder Butte Creek originates to the west of the butte, and flows by the southwest side of the butte, and then extends southeasterly to join the Moreau River. The small unincorporated community of Thunder Butte is located near this river junction at these geographical coordinates: Lat. 45.21166 N, Long. -101.670016 W.
