SW BA-077 Springtime in the Sutter Buttes

The Sutter Buttes are a small circular complex of eroded volcanic lava domes which rise as buttes above the flat plains of the Central Valley of California.The summit of South Butte, at 2122+ feet (647+ m), is the highest point in the Sutter Buttes. The Buttes are located just outside of Yuba City, California in the Sacramento Valley, the northern part of the Central Valley. The small range form a rough circle (sometimes called a "rosette")  only about 10 miles (16 km) from north to south and east to west.

For millennia the valley was an inland sea, then in recent thousands of years the land was covered in trees, grasses and wildflowers, the rivers teeming with fish and the skies dark with wildfowl. Native peoples such as the Maidu and the Wintun lived along the banks of what became known as the Sacramento and Feather Rivers, but retreated to the ramparts of the Buttes when winter storms flooded the valley.

The Maidus called the mountains Histum Yani, and the Wintuns knew them as Onolai-tol, both names roughly translating to "Middle Mountain." These buttes were very important spiritually to the two tribes in terms of their belief in creation, and at the end of life when they believed that their spirits would go to the Buttes on the way to the spirit world.

The Sutter Buttes are sometimes referred to as the world's smallest mountain range.

This postcard was sent by Sam Shea who lived north of the Sutter Buttes (received 7 May 2014 Swap-bot).