The Powell Buttes are mountains with several summits located in Crook County, Oregon, United States. The highest summit is over 5,200 feet (1,600 m). The mountains are geologically related to the Ochoco Mountains and are named after members of Joseph Powell's family.
The buttes are morphologically related to the Ochoco Mountains. Low grade uranium was found in very small amounts along the western side of one of the smaller buttes.[2]
Environment and ecology
In the summer, the environment around the Powell Buttes is dry and warm during the day and cool at night. In the winter, the weather is cold with snow occurring from October through April.[6]
In 1989, the Bureau of Land Management established a 520-acre (210 ha) Research Natural Area along the south side of the mountain including the southwest and southeast slopes.
The area's status was confirmed by a second study in 2005.[6]
A large destination resort by Pahlisch Homes, called the Hidden Canyon, was planned for development on the buttes but never saw completion because of land impact issues related to wildlife, among other reasons.[11]
From 1986 to 2018, Powell Butte was the site of one of two facilities of Oregon State University's Central Oregon Agricultural Research Center. The Powell Butte agricultural research farm acted as a center for potato variety development and hay production.[12] The site encompassed 80 acres (0.32 km2), most of which were dedicated to potato seed development. In 2010, an outbreak of the potato cyst nematode Globodera ellingtonae caused the farm to shut down, with major research activity moving to a different site in the city of Klamath Falls.[13] In June 2018, the land was sold to an industrial hemp producer.[14]
^Kriegh, LeeAnn, The Nature of Bend, Tempo Press, Bend, Oregon, 2016, pp. 106, 115, 116, 117.
^Kriegh, LeeAnn, The Nature of Bend, Tempo Press, Bend, Oregon, 2016, pp. 151, 188.
^Kriegh, LeeAnn, The Nature of Bend, Tempo Press, Bend, Oregon, 2016, p. 269.
^McArthur, Lewis A. and Lewis L. McArthur, "Powell Buttes", Oregon Geographic Names (Seventh Edition), Oregon Historical Society Press, Portland, Oregon, 2003, p. 781.