| Black Butte | |
| Elevation Ft: | 6334 |
| Elevation Ref: | [1] |
| Range: | Cascades |
| Location: | Siskiyou County, California, U.S. |
| Map: | USA California |
| Coordinates: | 41.3663°N -122.348°W |
| Topo: | USGS City of Mount Shasta |
| Type: | Lava dome |
| Age: | Holocene |
| Volcanic Arc: | Cascade Volcanic Arc[2] |
| Last Eruption: | About 9,500 years ago |
| Easiest Route: | Trail[3] |
Black Butte (formerly Wintoon Butte, Cone Mountain, Sugar Loaf and Muir's Peak[4]) is a cluster of overlapping dacite lava domes in a butte,[5] a satellite cone of Mount Shasta.[6] It is located directly adjacent to the northbound lanes of Interstate 5 at milepost 742 between the cities of Mount Shasta and Weed, California. The I-5 freeway crosses a 39120NaN0 pass, Black Butte Summit, at the western base of the lava domes. The lava domes were extruded at the foot of the cone of Shastina following the period of its major eruptions about 9,000–10,000 years ago.[5]
A United States Forest Service fire lookout tower was built on the summit in the early 1930s, but destroyed during the Columbus Day Storm of 1962. A new lookout was built in 1963 and operated until 1973. The building was moved by helicopter to a new location in 1975 and only the concrete foundation remains today. A 2.5miles trail leads to the summit from a trailhead accessible by gravel roads off the Everitt Memorial Highway.[7] The summit boasts an outstanding view of the southwest side of Shasta and Shastina, and on clear days Mount McLoughlin is easily visible 70miles to the north in Oregon. Lassen Peak is visible around 80miles to the south.[8]
From 1887 to 1911, Black Butte Summit was the name of a station on the Southern Pacific (SP) Siskiyou Line near Summit Lake, about a mile south of the present-day location of Black Butte.[9] In 1924-1926, the Natron Cutoff was built by SP as an alternative to the steep Siskiyou route and a small rail yard, wye, and train orders office were built at the present site of Black Butte on the rerouted line.[9] The station opened on September 1, 1926.[9] In the early 1940s, the station was moved to the opposite side of the tracks and the yard was expanded.[9] The station included a water tank, and housing for the railroad workers; the water tank still exists on the site.[9] SP workers and their families, including railway signal maintenance workers, lived at the station until the early 1970s.[9] The train orders office operated until 1966, when Centralized traffic control (CTC) replaced the train orders operator; the train orders office was destroyed by a derailing freight train on October 31, 1970.[9]
In 1992 the SP suspended operations over its Siskiyou line in favor of the Cascade Line.[10] The Siskiyou Line was leased to Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad (CORP) in 1995 (the line closed again in 2008).[10] The Southern Pacific was taken over by Union Pacific on September 11, 1996.[10]
The Coast Starlight derailed at Black Butte on December 7, 2000; one Amtrak engineer was injured.[11]
The Coast Starlight occasionally does crew changes at Black Butte instead the usual location of Klamath Falls.[11]
The Black Butte Subdivision of the UP starts in Klamath Falls, Oregon and ends in Dunsmuir, California.
The Springfield Junction wye at MP 621.9 in Glenwood, Oregon is the point where the UP's Cascade Line and Siskiyou Line through Siskiyou Pass diverge. The lines do not rejoin again until Black Butte at MP 345.
Black Butte is the site of the Black Butte Center for Railroad Culture.[12]