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Junction Butte

Junction of Yellowstone and Lamar Rivers

Butte in Yellowstone NP, Rocky Mountains near Buffalo Ford, WY

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Junction Butte Photographs

Rainbow at Junction Butte, Jim Peaco (NPS) photograph above.

Bison near Junction Butte, William W. Dunmire (NPS) photograph above

Junction Butte Wolf Pack

The Junction Butte Pack transcends Yellowstone’s northern range and is the most viewed wolf pack in the world (NPS 2021).

Junction Butte gray wolf pups shown above, Jeremy SunderRaj 2019 wolf program NPS staff photograph using a telephoto lens.

Geographic Name Origin

Named after 1871 by Hayden and the United States Geological Survey. Captain Barlow in 1871 had originally given the name Square Butte, but the name never caught on. (Macdonald)

When or by whom given [name] not known. The name arose, of course, from the fact that this butte stands at the junction of the two important streams, the Yellowstone and Lamar Rivers. [Captain] Barlow records that the Butte was known as “Square Butte” at the time of his visit in 1871. (Chittenden 1895)

— Chittenden page 301

Road Junction

Chittenden was also keenly aware that in addition to a river junction, it was a road or trail junction (1895):

Junction Butte (22 miles) is on the right bank of the Yellowstone in the angle between that stream and the East Fork. It stands not only near one of the most important stream junctions in the Park, but also near a not less important road junction. It is a very striking object. Its summit is nearly flat, and its sides near the summit are perpendicular. Below this is a steep slope composed of enormous masses of finely broken stone disengaged from the cliff by the force of the elements. It is a fitting landmark for its important situation.

— Chittenden page 262

Historical Field Note

August 26, 1870. Lt. Gustavus C. Doane accompanied by Truman C. Everts and Private Williamson pushed ahead of the delayed Washburn Langford Doane Expedition packtrain and ascended the Yellowstone River river terrace coming to the confluence of the Yellowstone and Lamar Rivers marked by Junction Butte (Doane 1873, 6-7).

The opening formed at the junction of the two streams [Yellowstone and Lamar Rivers] is probably 3 miles in diameter, and of nearly circular shape. The mountains on the opposite side and toward the head of the East Fork [Lamar River] are composed wholly of lava, heaped up in every imaginable form. In the center of the valley rises a table mountain, perpendicular on its sides, and capped with a horizontal stratum of trap rock about 50 feet in depth; standing isolated in the surrounding level valley, and between the channels of the two streams, it has a very singular and remarkable appearance.

— Doane

Further Research and Reading

NPS. “Gray Wolf - Yellowstone National Park” April 25, 2023. https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/wolves.htm.

NPS. “Wolf Restoration.” Yellowstone National Park, April 27, 2023. https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/wolf-restoration.htm.

Sources

Chittenden, Hiram Martin. Yellowstone National Park. Cincinnati: The Robert Clarke Company, 1895. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/42112/42112-h/42112-h.htm.

Doane, Gustavus Cheyney. Letter from the Secretary of War, Communicating the Report of Lieutenant Gustavus C. Doane upon the so-Called Yellowstone Expedition of 1870. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1873. http://archive.org/details/letterfromsecret1873unit.

Macdonald, Jim. “The Magic of Yellowstone History of Yellowstone Place Names.” Accessed November 3, 2023. https://www.yellowstone-online.com/history/yhtwo.html.

NPS. “Yellowstone Wolf Mortality Information Added to Park Website; Three Yellowstone Wolves Killed in Montana during First Week of Montana’s Hunting Season.” Press Release. Yellowstone National Park, September 27, 2021. https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/news/21028.htm.

Taxonomy

Classified As

Butte

Geologic Formation

Basalt flows and intrusive igneous rocks (WYQb;0)

Geologic Formation