Steptoe Butte

The butte gave geology a word. Its summit is quartzite more than 400 million years old, and the far younger lava flows of the Columbia Plateau rose around it without burying it. Geologists now call any such island of older rock standing above a lava plain a steptoe, after this one. So the name of a colonel defeated near Rosalia in 1858 went first to the hill and then to a landform recognized around the world. Pyramid Peak, the board's first name for it, is the one that was lost.

What the plaque says

Steptoe Butte This butte was first called Pyramid Peak. It was named "Steptoe" for a commander in the Indian wars at a battle in 1858 near the present town of Rosalia. In the 1880s James S. Davis built a resort and observatory on the Butte's top. A powerful telescope stood on the roof. He was called Cashup Davis as he bought only with cash. The town of Cashup was named for him. After Davis' death the hotel was lost by fire. In 1945 Virgil T. McCroskey donated the land to form Steptoe State Park. A road winds to the summit and a panoramic view of the Palouse Country. Erected by the Washington State Highway Commission

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Steptoe Butte — 3.5 mi
  James 'Cashup' Davis opened a hotel on the summit on July 4, 1888, at seventy-two; he died alone in it eight years later, and it burned in 1911.

More markers nearby

• Steptoe Battlefield — 16 mi
• World's Largest Mill — 22 mi
• Company Town — 22 mi
• DeSmet ('l'lkhwi'lus) — 23 mi