Thunder Butte has meant different things to different people through the years. A sacred mountain to the Lakota for ages, some white settlers around the turn of the last century also looked to the butte as a thing of stunning beauty and majesty. The following poem was written by G. M. Drummond, who was appointed Ziebach County Superintendent of Schools in 1912. A long time resident of the area, Mr. Drummond passed away in Selby, South Dakota in 1973.
THUNDER BUTTE
In northern Ziebach County
Stands Thunder Butte alone
The monarch of surrounding hills ...
With a diadem of stone!
He stood there countless ages,
While red men roamed the plains
And Buffalo and antelope
Grazed over vast domains.
There still he stands undaunted,
While seasons come and go,
Unchanged alike by summer sun
Or by the Winter snow.
The Persepolis of Persia
Stood not more dignified,
Nor the Acropolis of Athens
In its historic pride!
Rule on, Majestic Mountain!
May nothing ever mar
Your innate rugged beauty,
That may be seen afar.
G. M. Drummond
Editor's Note—This poem can be found in, “South Dakota's Ziebach County, History of the Prairie” published in 1982 by the Ziebach County Historical Society in Dupree, SD.
--Mike Crowley
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