South Buttes Facade
On the southerly face of the easterly butte of the South Buttes there is a rock facing consisting of rectangular rocks up to many tons. It covers approximately 150,000 square feet and is on a grade of 70% or more. It is on a portion of the western most butte of the two South Buttes, A guesstimate puts the larger rocks in the at well over 10 tons. There are two other sides to the west butte and each has a completely different look to of rock facing. The second type of facing is on the eastern tip of the South Buttes is included in many of these photos. This area certainly seems to warrant a closer look but the South Buttes is privately owned and getting up there to look closer at this formation is highly unlikely.
The blocks were originally "...extruding lavas were so viscous that they accumulated at the surface as thick, pasty blobs, or lava domes". The lavas would have no straight flat 'fracture lines', the mixture is somewhat similar to concrete only a lot tougher and harder. It would be an incredulous claim to make that this solidified andesite/dacite or rhyolite magma would naturally fracture into rows of rectangular blocks without strong supporting physical evidence. It is like saying that placing enough pressure (think via vise or sledge hammer) on a block of ice will fracture it into ice cubes. So far, this is the only place in the Sutter Buttes such a type of facing has been found. There are also white markings very similar to the Shasta Valley white quartz glass in appearance and placement.
Moving around the south side to the east side, a narrow point compared to the south and north faces, of the butte the facing changes to a facing with many strangely shaped stones, bizarre stone stacks and many rocks balanced on the tip of spires. Moving on around the east side and by the north side of the butte it is overgrown by 'country trash' and is in the shade most of the time. So far no good shots have been taken because it has been in shade on all flights.