Bullion Butte

Bullion Butte encompasses 19,877 acres of rolling terrain in the Dakota Prairie Grasslands of North Dakota, with the butte itself rising to 3,370 feet. The area drains into the Toms Wash-Little Missouri River headwaters system, with Toms Wash, Hanleys Wash, Sand Creek, and Second Creek carrying water through the landscape. These drainages originate in the uplands and move northward, creating riparian corridors that interrupt the surrounding grasslands and woodlands. Water availability in this semi-arid region concentrates both vegetation and wildlife along these named watercourses.

Six distinct plant communities create a mosaic across the area, each shaped by elevation, moisture, and soil. The highest elevations support Juniperus scopulorum / Little Bluestem Woodland, where Rocky Mountain juniper and little bluestem dominate the canopy and understory. Lower slopes transition to Pascopyrum smithii - Nassella viridula Grassland, dominated by western wheatgrass and green needlegrass. In the driest upland areas, Artemisia cana / Pascopyrum smithii Shrubland creates a low, open community where silver sagebrush and western wheatgrass grow alongside forbs including alyssum-leaved phlox, hooker's townsendia, and nodding buckwheat. Along the named creeks and washes, Populus deltoides / Symphoricarpos occidentalis Floodplain Forest establishes a narrow green corridor, with plains cottonwood and western snowberry framing the water. Upland draws support Fraxinus pennsylvanica / Prunus virginiana Forest, where green ash and chokecherry create a denser canopy. The lowest grassland areas are characterized by Schizachyrium scoparium - Bouteloua curtipendula Grassland, where little bluestem and blue grama form the dominant cover.

Wildlife in Bullion Butte reflects the diversity of these plant communities and the critical role of water. The federally endangered whooping crane and the proposed threatened monarch butterfly and western regal fritillary depend on the grassland and shrubland communities for migration and breeding habitat. The proposed endangered Suckley's cuckoo bumble bee pollinates the forbs scattered through the sagebrush and grassland. The federally endangered northern long-eared bat hunts insects above the floodplain forest and open grasslands at dusk. Golden eagles and prairie falcons hunt from the butte and ridgelines, preying on mule deer, pronghorn, and bighorn sheep that move through the grasslands and woodlands. Prairie rattlesnakes and greater short-horned lizards occupy the drier upland communities, where they find shelter in the sparse vegetation and rocky soil.

Walking through Bullion Butte, a visitor experiences the landscape as a series of ecological transitions. Following Toms Wash upstream from the lower grasslands, the terrain rises and the vegetation shifts from open Schizachyrium scoparium - Bouteloua curtipendula Grassland to the denser Artemisia cana / Pascopyrum smithii Shrubland, where the air fills with the calls of grassland birds. As elevation increases further, the juniper woodland thickens, and the understory darkens beneath the canopy. Climbing toward the butte itself, the view opens again across the rolling terrain, revealing the patchwork of grassland, shrubland, and woodland below. The named drainages—Sand Creek, Second Creek, Hanleys Wash—appear as thin green lines threading through the brown and gold grasslands, marking the only reliable water sources in this semi-arid landscape.

Indigenous peoples traveled through and utilized this region for millennia. The Little Missouri River basin served as a critical hunting ground for nomadic and semi-sedentary tribes, and the area was part of traditional bison hunting grounds. The Crow tribe utilized the Badlands at the eastern edge of their territory, which bordered the Bullion Butte region. Lakota bands, particularly the Hunkpapa, expanded into western North Dakota during the 18th and 19th centuries, using the area for hunting and as a site of resistance against U.S. expansion. The Arikara, historically allied with the Mandan and Hidatsa, also utilized this region for hunting and travel. High bluffs and buttes above the Little Missouri River were used by Mandan and Hidatsa men for eagle trapping, a practice of significant cultural and ceremonial importance. Buttes in western North Dakota, including those in the Badlands, were considered the homes of animal spirits, and Indigenous peoples traveled to these sites for medicine-making rituals and vision quests. The upland ridges extending into the Badlands served as natural travel routes and "prehistoric trails" for both game and people. The area provided essential raw materials, including colored clays and soils for making paint, and lithic materials like porcellanite for stone tools. Nearby locations such as "Tepee Bottom" and "Bullion Creek" were noted in early frontier records as sites of Indigenous camps and activity.

In the early 1880s, the area became a range for buffalo hunters and trappers. A trapper named "Jack" Bullion, for whom the butte and nearby Bullion Creek are named, operated a shack in the vicinity from approximately 1881 to 1884. Theodore Roosevelt frequented the area during his ranching years from 1883 to 1898, hunting antelope and bison near Bullion Butte and visiting neighbors like the Lang family at the nearby Cannonball Creek. The region was part of the "Cattle Bonanza" of the 1880s, with large operations like the 777 Ranch and the Berry-Boice outfit operating nearby. The disastrous winter of 1886–1887 decimated cattle herds in the region, including those of Theodore Roosevelt and the 777 Ranch, leading to the collapse of the open-range cattle industry. Local settlers historically mined coal for personal and local use from the Bullion Creek Formation, which underlies the area and contains extensive lignite coal seams. Scoria, or baked clay and sandstone formed by burning underground coal seams, was used locally for road surfacing. A notable historical structure is the "Rock House," a cabin built of prairie boulders and lumber located on a private in-holding on the south face of Bullion Butte.

During the 1930s Dust Bowl era, much of the land was acquired by the federal government under the submarginal land program of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Orders 6909 (November 21, 1934) and 6910 (November 26, 1934), which withdrew these lands for conservation and grazing. The Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act of 1937 provided permanent authority for the federal government to manage these "Land Utilization Projects" for soil conservation and grassland protection. Cattle ranching has remained the primary historical and current land use.

The Dakota Prairie Grasslands was officially formed in 1998 as a separate administrative unit of the U.S. Forest Service, created by the Chief of the Forest Service to provide focused management for the National Grasslands, which were previously administered as part of the Custer National Forest based in Billings, Montana. The unit manages four distinct National Grasslands: Little Missouri, Sheyenne, Cedar River, and Grand River. Bullion Butte was identified as "suitable for wilderness" in the 2002 Dakota Prairie Grasslands Management Plan and is protected under the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The roadless area has been largely protected from development since 1977, while the surrounding National Grasslands are heavily utilized for oil and gas extraction.

Vital Resources Protected

Headwater Protection and Little Missouri River Integrity

Bullion Butte contains the headwaters of Toms Wash, Hanleys Wash, Sand Creek, and Second Creek—tributaries that feed the Little Missouri River system. The roadless condition preserves the natural hydrology of these drainage networks by preventing the erosion and sedimentation that road construction and maintenance generate. Once roads are built, cut slopes and disturbed soil become chronic sources of sediment that degrade water quality downstream and alter the geomorphic structure of stream channels, making restoration of these headwater systems extremely difficult. The USFS Watershed Condition Framework identifies this region as a priority for integrated restoration, meaning the area's current roadless state is essential to preventing further degradation of an already at-risk watershed.

Northern Long-Eared Bat Maternity and Foraging Habitat

The federally endangered Northern Long-Eared Bat depends on the intact forest canopy within Bullion Butte's Fraxinus pennsylvanica (green ash) / Prunus virginiana (chokecherry) forest and Juniperus scopulorum (Rocky Mountain juniper) / Little Bluestem woodland for maternity roosts and insect foraging. Road construction fragments these forest patches, creating edge habitat where bat predators (particularly owls) gain access and where light and wind penetration reduce insect abundance. Because Northern Long-Eared Bats have low reproductive rates and require continuous, unfragmented canopy corridors to move between roosts and feeding areas, fragmentation from roads is difficult to reverse—the bats will not recolonize fragmented patches even after decades of recovery.

Grassland Specialist Breeding Habitat

Bullion Butte's extensive Pascopyrum smithii-Nassella viridula grassland and Schizachyrium scoparium-Bouteloua curtipendula grassland provide breeding habitat for species of conservation priority identified by the North Dakota Game and Fish Department: Brewer's Sparrow, McCown's Longspur, and Sprague's Pipit. These grassland specialists require large, contiguous patches of native prairie free from human infrastructure; roads create visual and acoustic disturbance that causes breeding birds to avoid areas near the road edge, effectively reducing usable habitat even where vegetation remains intact. The surrounding National Grassland has already experienced industrialization from energy development, making Bullion Butte's roadless grassland increasingly rare in the region and irreplaceable as breeding habitat.

Monarch Butterfly and Western Regal Fritillary Migration Corridor

The proposed threatened Monarch butterfly and proposed threatened Western regal fritillary (Argynnis idalia occidentalis) depend on the native forb diversity within Bullion Butte's grasslands and shrublands—particularly the Artemisia cana (silver sagebrush) / Pascopyrum smithii shrubland—as nectar and host plants during spring and fall migration. Road construction introduces invasive annual grasses (such as cheatgrass) through soil disturbance and vehicle transport, which outcompete native forbs and eliminate the floral resources these migratory species require. Because monarch and fritillary populations are already in decline across North America, loss of intact migration corridors in the northern Great Plains cannot be compensated by habitat elsewhere.

Threats from Road Construction

Sedimentation and Stream Temperature Increase in Headwater Drainages

Road construction requires cutting into hillsides to create stable grades, exposing bare soil that erodes with every precipitation event. In Bullion Butte's hilly terrain, this chronic erosion delivers sediment directly into Toms Wash, Hanleys Wash, Sand Creek, and Second Creek, smothering the gravel and cobble spawning substrate that native fish species require and filling pools with fine sediment that reduces water clarity and oxygen availability. Additionally, road construction removes riparian forest canopy along stream corridors, allowing direct solar radiation to warm water temperatures—a particularly acute threat in lowland prairie streams where cold-water refugia are already limited. These changes are difficult to reverse because sediment sources persist for decades after road construction, and riparian forest recovery requires 50+ years.

Habitat Fragmentation and Edge Effects on Northern Long-Eared Bat Populations

Road corridors fragment the continuous forest canopy that Northern Long-Eared Bats require for safe movement between roosts and foraging areas. The cleared right-of-way creates an edge where light penetration and wind exposure reduce insect abundance—the primary food source for these bats—and where predatory owls gain hunting advantage. Because Northern Long-Eared Bats have extremely low reproductive rates (typically one pup per female per year) and do not recolonize fragmented habitat patches, even small road networks can cause local population extinction. The species' federally endangered status reflects its vulnerability to fragmentation; once lost from Bullion Butte, recovery would require decades of habitat reconnection that may never occur if surrounding lands remain developed.

Invasive Grass Establishment and Native Forb Loss

Road construction and maintenance create disturbed soil corridors that are colonized by invasive annual grasses, particularly cheatgrass, which spreads into adjacent native grassland and shrubland through vehicle traffic and seed dispersal. Cheatgrass outcompetes native forbs—the nectar and host plants that Monarch butterflies and Western regal fritillaries depend on during migration—and reduces the structural diversity of grassland that ground-nesting birds like Sprague's Pipit and McCown's Longspur require for breeding. Once established, invasive annual grasses alter fire regimes and soil chemistry, making native forb recovery extremely slow even after road abandonment. The North Dakota Wildlife Action Plan identifies invasive species as a primary driver of habitat loss in this region; road construction accelerates this threat by creating invasion corridors.

Aquatic Nuisance Species Dispersal into Little Missouri River Tributaries

Road construction increases human access and vehicle traffic through Bullion Butte, facilitating the transport of aquatic nuisance species (such as zebra mussels documented in nearby river systems) into previously isolated headwater streams via contaminated equipment and water. Once zebra mussels or other invasive aquatic species establish in the Little Missouri River system, they cannot be eradicated and will spread throughout the drainage network, clogging water intakes, altering native fish habitat, and degrading water quality. The roadless condition of Bullion Butte currently serves as a barrier to this dispersal; road access removes that protection and exposes the entire headwater system to invasion.

The Maah Daah Hey Trail (7001) runs 21.8 miles through Bullion Butte on imported compacted material, rated moderate overall but featuring constant elevation changes of 1,500 to 2,500 feet per day. Hikers, mountain bikers, and horseback riders use this route as the primary corridor through the area. The trail also connects the North and South Units of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and intersects approximately 5 miles of the North Country National Scenic Trail. A popular backcountry route ascends Bullion Butte itself—a strenuous day-long climb to the 3,370-foot summit, the sixth-highest point in North Dakota. The summit offers 360-degree views of the Little Missouri National Grassland, including the Ponderosa Pines area to the south and Kendley Plateau to the east. Access points include West River Road (approximately 25 miles south of Medora), FS Route 745 from the southeast, and East River Road (FH3) from the northwest near Amidon. Water is scarce; users must carry their own or rely on caches at locations like Plumely Draw or Third Creek. Clay-based soil becomes extremely slippery when wet, making late spring, early summer, late summer, and fall the best seasons for travel.

Hunting in the roadless area is restricted to primitive methods—foot or horseback only—a restriction in place since 2001 that has supported increased game populations and a backcountry hunting experience. Mule deer and pronghorn are the primary big game species; pronghorn hunting is regulated by lottery with seasons typically in October, while deer bow season runs from early September through early January and deer gun season occurs over 16.5 days in November. Upland bird hunters pursue sharp-tailed grouse, wild turkey, and pheasant. Small game includes coyote, jackrabbit, and prairie dogs (year-round, no bag limit). All 19,877 acres are open to hunters under North Dakota Game and Fish Department regulations. Access for hunters follows the same routes as hikers: West River Road, FS Route 745, East River Road (FH3), and parking near the Little Missouri River on the northeast corner of the butte. Rattlesnakes are abundant, particularly near water sources like the Rock House spring on the south face.

The Little Missouri River supports channel catfish, sauger, walleye, and goldeye. Anglers must access the river by hiking or horseback from the roadless area's perimeter; hand-launch only is permitted for small craft. No stocking programs operate within the roadless area, and no special regulations (such as catch-and-release restrictions) are documented for these waters. The river carries a high sediment load and meanders in countless curves near the butte, offering scenic fishing locations with extreme solitude due to the strenuous hiking required to reach it. Fishing is subject to standard North Dakota regulations: year-round seasons, two poles per angler, two lures per line.

Photography opportunities center on the Bullion Butte summit and the Little Missouri River valley. The flat summit at 3,370 feet provides views north, west, and east across the Badlands. The river makes a prominent bend at the butte's base, visible from multiple vantage points. Wildflowers bloom in late May and June, including chokecherry and silver buffaloberry. Wildlife sightings documented by photographers include mule deer, golden eagles, turkey vultures, hawks, pheasants, wild turkeys, and geese. The area is noted for star-filled skies suitable for backcountry stargazing. Access requires hiking from West River Road or other perimeter points; no roads lead to the summit.

The roadless condition is essential to all these recreation opportunities. The absence of motorized vehicle access since 2001 has created the primitive hunting experience, the quiet trails for hikers and bikers, the undisturbed wildlife habitat that supports sightings of golden eagles and pronghorn, and the solitude that defines fishing and photography here. Roads would fragment the landscape, introduce noise and dust, and degrade the backcountry character that makes Bullion Butte distinct within the Little Missouri National Grassland.