Steptoe Butte Wa.--Colfax Wa.

Last Sunday we drove from Ritzville to Steptoe Butte.  It is in flat wheat country--this 3600ft lump of a mountain.  One can drive up to the tiptop and see for miles and miles. Snow on one side and almost none on the other.   

Steptoe Butte is a quartzite island jutting out of the silty loess of the Palouse hills in Whitman County, Washington. It is contained by Steptoe Butte State Park. The rock that forms the butte is over 400 million years old, in contrast with the 15–7 million year old Columbia River basalts that underlie the rest of the Palouse. Steptoe Butte has become the archetype for its type, and steptoes are defined as isolated protrusions of bedrock, such as summits of hills or mountains, in lava flows.

Native peoples attained to sacred spirit quests here at their power mountain. It was customary for Indian youths entering adulthood to undertake a special journey, or spirit quest, in order to receive a special guardian power from the Great Spiirit that would protect the person thoughout their life. It was traditional to be alone on such a quest to some remote place and remain there for several days without food until the spirit was revealed in a sacred dream.