Maps

One of the best ways to get a feeling for the place you are about to explore is to examine maps. The image to the right is part of a larger elevation map of California created by the USGS. Black Butte is in the center of the image (at the border of the green and gold) to the southwest of white-tipped Mount Shasta. Shasta Valley is the gold colored region in the upper central portion of the picture. Scott Valley is the smaller valley to the west of Shasta Valley. Highway 89 traverses the valley to the southeast of Shasta. The town of McCloud is at the western edge of this valley.

Here is another, more conventional, map (120K) by the USGS. It shows the location of the major highways, towns, peaks, and rivers around Mount Shasta. You can find Black Butte between Weed and Mount Shasta City to the east of I-5.

There are several maps in the Mount Shasta Collection at College of the Siskiyous which provide a record of the many place names Black Butte has had. Can you find Black Butte in the maps below? What are some of the other toponyms of Black Butte?

• 1923 1/250,000 USGS Shasta, California (121K)
  Note: Butteville = Edgewood and Berryvale = Mount Shasta City
  P.S. Black Crater is not Black Butte
• 1935 1/125,000 USGS Dunsmuir, California (286K)
  Notice the name of Highway 99

Postcards

Postcards of Black Butte can also be found in abundance in the Mount Shasta Collection at College of the Siskiyous. The postcards are included for you to enjoy.

• Black Butte from Highway 99
• Black Butte near Sisson
• Muir's Butte, near Mt. Shasta, California

Ground Views

Climbing Black Butte is a favorite pasttime for many local residents and visitors. The 2 1/2 mile trail climbs nearly 2,000 feet from the trailhead to the summit. Several web pages about Black Butte have been made by physical geography students at College of the Siskiyous. For a fun trip, be sure to check out Adam's website. You'll hear some more local legends and find out about other toponyms Black Butte has had.

Aerial Views

One of the nice things about living in Siskiyou County is that folks are so friendly. The Farm Services Agency at Yreka has allowed me to peruse their collection on several occasions. A new set of images of this area, taken in August of 1993, is now available. The air photo of Black Butte had the numbers BB-22 (a local ID), 294L, and NAPP-6254. NAPP stands for National Aerial Photography Program, which maintains a website, so I was able to find out more information about this particular photograph. Under this program, images are now taken from 20,000 feet (prior to 1987 they were obtained from 40,000 feet) and every region in the United States (except Alaska) are re-photographed every five years. The USGS use the air photos to revise their 1:24000, 1:100000 and 1:250000 scale maps. Check out the medium-sized or big image (1039K) to see Black Butte at a better resolution.

Viewing the landscape from the air is quite a thrill! The image of Black Butte to the right was taken in June 1993 on my first helicopter trip during the Weed Carnivale. I tried to obtain some remotely sensed images of Black Butte so I could present them to you here, but the weather has not been cooperative this fall.

Images from Space

The Space Shuttle missions began with the launching of Columbia, "the Incredible Flying Machine," on April 12, 1981. This self-same spacecraft will begin its 24th flight this month (November 1997), the 88th space shuttle flight of the program. Other shuttles in the program include the Discovery, the ill-fated Challenger, Endeavor, and Atlantis.

Images obtained from space provide us with a small-scale perspective of the Earth. That is, we see a lot of area covered but not in much detail. Knowing the relative location of Black Butte to Mount Shasta is the best way to find this landform from an orbital altitude. After you have examined the elevation map at the top of this page and located familiar places, check out the infrared image which covers the region from just north of Shasta Lake to slightly north of the Oregon border.

Black Butte shows up prominantly in a radar image of Mount Shasta taken by NASA during a 1984 mission aboard the space shuttle Challenger. Ten years later an improved radar system aboard the space shuttle Endeavor recorded this view. The Mount Shasta region was photographed from the Columbia space shuttle in June of 1991.