Fine Art Portfolio
Another of the linocuts included in 'Bury Me in My Waders'
Book by Don E. Webster, completed Summer of 2012.
The Sutter Buttes (Maidu: Histum Yani or Esto Yamani, Wintun: Olonai-Tol, Nisenan: Estom Yanim) are a small circular complex of eroded volcanic lava domes which rise as buttes above the flat plains of the Sacramento Valley in Sutter County, northern California. They are situated just outside of Live Oak in the northern part of the state's Central Valley.
Referred to as the world's smallest mountain range, the Sutter Buttes have as their highest point the summit of South Butte, at 2,122 ft (647 m), which is also the highest point in Sutter County. Before levees and dams the area would flood during the winter months. The indigenous peoples of the area would travel for miles and camp for months on the slopes of the small mountains until the valley floor dried up.
At the base of the mountain is the small town of Sutter. Both the town and the buttes are named for John Sutter, who received a large land grant in the area from the Mexican government.
I chose to use the image of these mountains, because they have a personal significance to me. Some of my close relatives lived nearby for over fifty years and I used to spend the summers here when I was a teenager, working in the fields, picking fruit and working on a surveying team. In the late afternoons my cousins and I would fish and swim in the regulated irrigation ditches.