NATURE · VOLCANO
Pilot Butte
Nature
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Pilot Butte is an extinct cinder cone in Bend, Oregon, rising nearly 500 feet above the surrounding plain and making Bend one of the few U.S. cities with a volcano inside its limits. A Pleistocene volcano of uncertain age, it erupted basaltic andesite, and later regional lava flows helped redirect the Deschutes River westward. Long a local landmark, it was named in 1851 by Thomas Clark, though it was once also called Red Butte. Donated to Oregon in 1928 as a memorial to Terrence Hardinton Foley, it is now Pilot Butte State Scenic Viewpoint, a heavily visited public park and civic gathering place.
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