Right on this road =1 m.= to an advantageous point from which to hike to the top of BLACK BUTTE (3,468 alt.), highest elevation in the State. The butte is some 8 m. in circumference, and near the top solid rock cliffs rise perpendicularly 50 to 100 ft. above its grassy slopes. At its base lie huge boulders, broken from the sides by the action of weather. Springs form numerous creeks on the northern side, and their tree-and brush-lined banks are a favorite ground for berry-picking parties. At the northern corner of the butte is a hole about 3 ft. wide, from which a slight draught of air can be felt. When a pebble is dropped into this opening a dull thud can be heard, as though the stone had not struck solid bottom. On the S. side of the butte is SNOW CAVE, where the deep winter snows often remain until August. There is a fine view from the top of the butte. At the western edge of the mesa are two rock-lined EAGLE PITS, about 4 ft. wide and 3 ft. deep, from which hidden Indians caught eagles and plucked out their tail feathers for their war bonnets. These quills were very valuable, often worth a pony in trade. Black Butte is also known as H. T. Butte, since it was part of the H. T. ranch, which in the 1880's and 1890's was the largest horse ranch in the State. The surrounding country in those days was given over to the ranging of cattle, sheep, and horses, and it was not until the coming of the "honyocks", as the stockmen called the homesteaders, and the cultivation of former range lands, that the ranching of this section was curtailed. Concerning H. T. Butte old-timers of this section tell a story of a cowhand named Bob Pierce who because of his merciless riding was known to his fellow workers as "Crazy Loon" as well as by numerous other uncomplimentary titles. He rode his mount at any speed anywhere, and it was hard to "keep him in horses." It chanced that at one time Bob was paired, on the circuit, with talkative old Colonel Sullers. Thinking to harry the colonel, Bob began to spur his horse to breakneck speed. Sullers kept beside him, holding up both ends of a political conversation and trying to pretend not to notice the speed. His horse, unfortunately, stepped into a hole, and the rider went sprawling. Stopping at a nearby creek to wash the dirt and blood from his head and face, he reviled his tormentor, declaring, "When you're dead your ghost will ride the tops of the hills and howl like a gray wolf." In the course of time Bob Pierce died, or he may have been killed on one of his wild rides. Since then, it is said, a horseman is seen, on dark nights, riding at breakneck speed up the steep, inaccessible sides of H. T. Butte, and sometimes the howl of a gray wolf is heard.