Soda Butte

Soda Butte, a striking hot spring cone about two and a half miles above the mouth of Soda Butte Creek, is the feature that suggested the name of this area. A. Bart Henderson, a prospector who noted that "One mile up this creek is a very singular butte, some 40 feet high, which has been formed by soda water," assigned the name Soda Butte; however, he wasn't an accurate observer because Soda Butte is not a soda ash (sodium carbonate) formation but a deposit of travertine (calcium carbonate).