The rock that forms the butte is over 400 million years old, in contrast with the 15–7 million year old Columbia River Basalts that underlie the rest of the Palouse. Steptoe Butte has become an archetype, as isolated protrusions of bedrock, such as summits of hills or mountains, in lava flows have come to be called "steptoes."
""The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes…""
— Arthur Conan Doyle
“The Hound of the Baskervilles”
""Mathematics...
