Cottonwood Butte is a mountain and modest

ski area A ski area is the terrain and supporting infrastructure where skiing and other snow sports take place. Such sports include alpine and cross-country skiing, snow boarding, tubing, sledding, etc. Ski areas may stand alone or be part of a ski resort. ...

in the

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, located in north central

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

, west of nearby Cottonwood. Its summit

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

is above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

and is the highest point on the

Camas Prairie The name camas prairie refers to several different geographical areas in the western United States which were named for the native perennial camassia or camas. The culturally and scientitifcally significant of these areas lie within Idaho and Monta ...

, above Cottonwood.

Ski area

The ski lift unloads about below the summit at , yielding a vertical drop of . The slopes are on the northeast flank of the mountain, served by two

surface lift A surface lift is a type of cable transport for snow sports in which skiers and snowboarders remain on the ground as they are pulled uphill. While they were once prevalent, they have been overtaken in popularity by higher-capacity and higher-co ...

s: a

T-bar A surface lift is a type of cable transport for snow sports in which skiers and snowboarders remain on the ground as they are pulled uphill. While they were once prevalent, they have been overtaken in popularity by higher-capacity and higher-co ...

and a

rope tow A surface lift is a type of cable transport for snow sports in which skiers and snowboarders remain on the ground as they are pulled uphill. While they were once prevalent, they have been overtaken in popularity by higher-capacity and higher-co ...

. The average

snowfall Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

is . The ski area opened in 1967, although skiing had previously taken place on the mountain with portable The area operates from 10 am to 4 pm on weekends and holidays, and Friday nights (6–10 pm) in January.

Radar station

During the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

, the mountain was the site of Cottonwood Air Force Station, an

early warning radar An early-warning radar is any radar system used primarily for the long-range detection of its targets, i.e., allowing defences to be alerted as ''early'' as possible before the intruder reaches its target, giving the air defences the maximum t ...

installation of the

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

. The project was made public in 1955, construction began in 1956, and it went operational in early 1959. The radar tower was at the summit and the

cantonment A cantonment (, , or ) is a military quarters. In Bangladesh, India and other parts of South Asia, a ''cantonment'' refers to a permanent military station (a term from the British India, colonial-era). In military of the United States, United Stat ...

of the station was at , about a mile (1.6 km) below the present base of the ski area on Radar Road. The 27-unit family housing area was built in the city of Cottonwood, on Butte Drive in the north end. The radar was significantly upgraded with a new tower in 1962, but the station was obsolete within three years and was

Job Corps

The buildings of the cantonment became a

Job Corps Job Corps is a program administered by the United States Department of Labor that offers free education and vocational training to young men and women ages 16 to 24. Mission and purpose Job Corps' mission is to help young people ages 16 throug ...

center in 1965, supervised by the

U.S. Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency in ...

Correctional facility

After nine years, the Job Corps center was transferred to the state of Idaho in 1974, and was converted to the minimum-security North Idaho Correctional Institution (NICI). The state department of lands built a fire lookout at the summit, which also supports various communications towers.

Video

Cottonwood Butte

Ski area

Radar station

Job Corps

Correctional facility

Video

References

External links