The buttes are a major landmark, rising well above the surrounding high desert plain with a topographic prominence of approximately 2,000 feet (610 m).

Snow melt from the southern slopes of Glass Buttes drains into the Lost Creek Valley where Stauffer is located.

As a result, vegetation is sparse, consisting mainly of sagebrush and bunchgrass with widely dispersed western juniper in some areas.

[10][18] Most of the initial homesteaders in the Stauffer area lived in tents for many months waiting for lumber to be shipped in from Bend or Prineville.

Other settlers cut Juniper trees on the slopes of Glass Buttes for logs to build rustic cabins.

Basic food products and other supplies were delivered by freight wagon from Bend every six months, a trip that took six days each way.

To brighten up their homes, many homesteaders decorated their rustic dwellings with obsidian gathers from sites around nearby Glass Buttes.

Today, many abandoned homestead sites around Stauffer are marked by piles of obsidian collected by pioneer families.

[2] A few years after the initial rush of settlers arrived between 1910 and 1913, the lack of water and the harsh freezing winters, when temperatures often dropped to −25 °F (−32 °C), forced many homesteaders to abandon their Lost Creek Valley land claims.

Charles Stauffer and Fred Donovan delivered the ballots to the Lake County seat in Lakeview, 90 miles (140 km) south of the Lost Creek Valley.

[26] That same year, the Stauffer post office was closed and postal serve was transferred to Hampton, which was located on the main Route 20 highway between Bend and Burns.

[1] In 1943, the United States Army conducted a large-scale battle near the Stauffer town site as part of the Oregon Maneuver training exercise to prepare troops for combat in World War II.

The Oregon Maneuver was one of the largest military training exercises ever conducted in the continental United States with over 100,000 soldiers and airmen participating.

The nearest inhabited place is the small unincorporated community of Hampton, Oregon, which is located 21 miles (34 km) northwest of the Stauffer site.