the.com/butte
a mesa that lost a weight-loss bet with erosion and won the skyline
means An isolated hill or rock formation with steep, often vertical sides and a small flat top, standing alone on a plain.
from Straight from French butte, meaning a knoll or mound, related to French but, 'a mark or target' — the kind of raised earthwork you'd aim arrows at. It rode west with French fur trappers and explorers across North America, where it stuck to the lonely flat-topped hills of the Great Plains and the desert Southwest.
- taller than wide
- Defined by height exceeding its narrow flat top
- mesa's heir
- Forms as larger mesas erode down over eons
- hard hat
- Resistant cap rock shields softer layers below
- french word
- Means small hill, named by fur trappers
- devils tower
- Wyoming's iconic butte rises 867 feet sheer
for instance
devils tower — 1,267-foot columnar butte in northeastern wyoming, first u.s. national monument designated in 1906
shiprock — 1,583-foot volcanic butte in northwestern new mexico, sacred to navajo people, visible 100 miles away