Pelican Butte facts for kids

Pelican Butte is a large, gently sloping volcano in the Cascade Range of southern Oregon, United States. It's known as a shield volcano because its shape looks like a warrior's shield lying on the ground. This type of volcano forms from many runny lava flows that spread out widely. Pelican Butte is located about 28 miles (45 km) south of Crater Lake and 12 miles (19 km) northeast of Mount McLoughlin.

This impressive volcano is one of the biggest in its area, even though it's not a tall, cone-shaped stratovolcano like some others in the Cascades. Pelican Butte stands out because it formed a bit away from the main line of Cascade volcanoes. It grew over cracks in the Earth's crust along the eastern edge of the mountain range. During the last Ice age, huge sheets of ice called glaciers carved out a large bowl-shaped valley, or cirque, on its northeast side. Even with this erosion, Pelican Butte still looks much like it did when it first formed.

Scientists believe Pelican Butte last erupted between 200,000 and 700,000 years ago. Its early eruptions were explosive, throwing out ash and rock. Later, it produced thinner lava flows. Today, Pelican Butte is part of the Fremont-Winema National Forest and the Sky Lakes Wilderness. Many different plants and animals call this area home. Native Americans once knew the mountain as Mongina. Today, a fire lookout tower sits on its summit, helping to spot forest fires. A gravel road leads to the top, offering amazing views.

Exploring Pelican Butte

Where is Pelican Butte Located?

Pelican Butte is found in Klamath County, Oregon in the southeastern part of Oregon. It's close to Fish Lake. You can reach it from Oregon Highway 140. The volcano is inside the Fremont–Winema National Forest and is part of the Sky Lakes Wilderness. This wilderness area covers a huge space of about 113,849 acres (461 km²) and is managed by the United States Forest Service. The land here ranges from about 3,800 feet (1,158 m) to 9,495 feet (2,894 m) in elevation.

While still part of the Cascade Range, Pelican Butte is a bit separate from the main chain of volcanoes. It grew where the Earth's crust has cracks, called normal faults, along the eastern edge of the Cascades. The top of Pelican Butte reaches an elevation of 8,037 feet (2,450 m). Its sides are quite steep, but its original shape is mostly preserved, even after being shaped by glaciers. During the Pleistocene epoch, which was a long time ago (from about 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago), glaciers carved out a canyon and a cirque on the volcano's northeast side. These glaciers also lowered the summit a bit and created an intrusive channel inside the volcano. Today, there aren't many glaciers left on the mountain.

Pelican Butte is a very large volcano, with a volume of about 20 cubic kilometers (4.8 cubic miles). This makes it one of the biggest volcanoes in the region, similar in size to some of the taller, cone-shaped volcanoes like Mount Shasta. It's even about 33 percent larger than nearby Mount McLoughlin. Pelican Butte is the most noticeable shield volcano in the southern Oregon Cascades.

Plants and Animals of Pelican Butte

Forest Life

The forests on Pelican Butte are home to many types of trees. At lower elevations, around 4,429 feet (1,350 m), you'll mostly see Douglas fir and Ponderosa pine trees. As you go higher, to about 5,413 feet (1,650 m), Shasta red fir trees become more common. Even higher, around 5,741 feet (1,750 m), both red fir and white fir trees grow. Near the very top, you can find endangered western white pine trees. These pines are important for birds like Clark's nutcrackers and gray jays. Mountain hemlock trees also grow at higher elevations. Around the subalpine lakes in the Sky Lakes Wilderness, lodgepole pines are more common, and you might spot some Engelmann spruce trees too. The smaller plants growing under the trees, called the understory, include huckleberry, snowbrush, heather, and manzanita.

Animal Residents

Many animals live in the Sky Lakes Wilderness area, including Pelican Butte. In the summer and early fall, you might see elk. Other animals that live here year-round include American martens, American black bears, cougars, coyotes, pikas, and golden-mantled ground squirrels. Birds like ospreys and American bald eagles also make their homes on the mountain. Scientists have studied the animals that northern spotted owls hunt, and they found creatures like northern flying squirrels, bushy-tailed woodrats, and voles living at Pelican Butte. Less common prey included deer mice and Townsend's chipmunk, as well as various insects. Some of the lakes in the area are stocked with fish for fishing. Nearby Klamath Lake is home to several types of sucker fish, including the Klamath largescale sucker, the Klamath smallscale sucker, and the endangered Lost River sucker and shortnose sucker.

How Pelican Butte Formed

Pelican Butte as seen from Mount McLoughlin

Pelican Butte is part of a larger area called the Quaternary Mount McLoughlin Reach. This is a zone where many volcanic vents, or openings in the Earth, are found. It stretches from Pelican Butte all the way to Aspen Lake, covering about 33 vents over an area of 925 square kilometers (357 square miles). This vent zone is about 15 to 25 kilometers (9 to 16 miles) wide.

Pelican Butte is a shield volcano, meaning it was built up by many layers of lava flows. It sits on older lava that erupted during the Pliocene and early Pleistocene periods. The volcano is mostly made of a type of volcanic rock called andesite, along with basaltic andesite. These rocks contain minerals like plagioclase, augite, hypersthene, and olivine.

When the volcano first erupted, thick lava flows traveled down existing channels. These flows sometimes formed glassy deposits. Later, a different type of andesitic lava created thinner flows with blocks of rock and scoria (bubbly volcanic rock) closer to the summit. The summit of Pelican Butte also has a small cinder cone, which is a cone-shaped hill made of volcanic ash and rock fragments. Scientists believe that much of the volcano is made of breccia, which is rock made of broken fragments cemented together. This can be seen in eroded areas between the lava flows.

Nearby Volcanoes

Nearby, you'll find other interesting volcanic features. Imagination Peak is a scoria cone (a small, steep-sided volcano made of scoria) with lava flows located northwest of Pelican Butte. Brown Mountain is another shield volcano in the same area. It's much smaller than Pelican Butte, with a volume of about 1 cubic mile (4 km³). Brown Mountain erupted between 60,000 and 12,000 years ago. Glaciers during the Pleistocene also carved a bowl-shaped valley, or cirque, on its northeastern side.

When Did Pelican Butte Erupt?

Pelican Butte last erupted sometime within the past 700,000 years. The exact timing is a bit unclear, but we know it hasn't erupted since glaciers covered the area about 12,000 years ago. It's also very likely that it hasn't erupted in the last 60,000 years. Some studies suggest most eruptions happened less than 200,000 years ago, while others point to the summit being around 540,000 years old. The Global Volcanism Program, which tracks volcanoes, states that Pelican Butte has not erupted since the Pleistocene epoch. It's not known for sure if Pelican Butte is an extinct volcano (meaning it will never erupt again) or a dormant one (meaning it's currently quiet but could erupt in the future).

The eruptions at Pelican Butte first built a cone at the summit with tuff breccia and lapilli (small volcanic rocks). These were formed during mildly explosive events. Over time, these deposits were mostly covered by lava flows. Glaciers later eroded the cone, making it lower. After the initial explosive activity, the volcano produced thinner lava flows, including ʻaʻā lava (rough, jagged lava) and block lava (lava that breaks into large blocks).

People and Pelican Butte

Early Inhabitants

Pelican Butte gets its name from nearby Pelican Bay, which is at the northern end of Upper Klamath Lake. Long ago, Native Americans knew this mountain by the name Mongina. The United States Coast and Geodetic Survey once called it Lost Peak. Ancestors of the Klamath and Takelma people lived in this area thousands of years ago. They hunted animals and gathered berries, especially huckleberries, on the mountain. Mountains in the Cascades were sometimes important places for young Klamath Native Americans to go on vision quests, which were special journeys to find spiritual guidance.

Modern History and Lookouts

When white settlers arrived in the area, they also used the Sky Lakes Wilderness for hunting, trapping animals like beaver and marten, and grazing their livestock. In the early 1900s, the United States Forest Service began building trails and fire lookouts to help protect the forests.

Pelican Butte has a fire lookout tower on its summit. The first lookout was an L-4 type, built on a cable pole tower. These L-4 lookouts were popular small cabins with windows, sometimes on the ground or on tall towers. The original lookout was replaced in 1954 with a timber tower. Then, in 1966, an R6 type lookout was built, also on a timber tower. R6 lookouts were larger, square cabins with flat roofs that extended out for shade. The current metal lookout tower was built in 1986 and is still maintained by the United States Forest Service. It sits at an elevation of 7,994 feet (2,437 m).

In 1984, the United States Congress officially made the Sky Lakes Wilderness area, which includes Pelican Butte, a protected wilderness. This area also holds historical sites like the Waldo Tree, which was marked by a politician named John B. Waldo in 1888. There's also the Twin Ponds Trail, which follows the path of an old military wagon road from the 1860s.

Fun Things to Do at Pelican Butte

A gravel road goes all the way to the top of Pelican Butte. This road branches off Oregon Route 140. It's usually only open during the summer months when there's no snow. The last few miles of the road are steep and narrow, so it's best to use a vehicle with high ground clearance. From the summit, you get an amazing 180-degree view of the Cascades, stretching from south of Crater Lake to Mount McLoughlin.

For winter fun, the Klamath Basin Snowdrifters Snowmobile Club operates a special trail for snowmobiles on the volcano. The famous Pacific Crest Trail, a long-distance hiking trail, also passes through the Sky Lakes Wilderness area for about 35 miles (56 km).

For many years, there have been ideas to build a ski resort on Pelican Butte. These plans started in the 1960s. However, these efforts were always met with opposition from groups like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and local residents. During the 1990s and into 2001, a company called Jeld-Wen invested money in planning for a ski area. As of 2017, there were no plans to develop a ski area on the mountain, according to an official from the Fremont-Winema National Forest.