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.

The town, county, and buttes are named for John Sutter, a man who received a large land grant in the area from the Mexican government.

[6][7] The volcanic remnants form a rough circle approximately 10 mi (16 km) from north to south and east to west.

[12] The magma that gave rise to the Sutter Buttes first appeared as rhyolite, a molten rock rich in silicates.

Following this, a second set of eruptions occurred, whose magma was composed of andesite and dacite, compositions that were rich in magnesium and iron, which were much less viscous.

This less viscous magma both breached the surface, as well as lifted the surrounding layers of earth, causing the volcanic domes that are representative of the Sutter Buttes today to sit prominently above the floor around them.

[10] Exploration of natural gas leaks was first undertaken at South Butte by Dexter Cook in 1864, when he dug a 65 ft (20 m) shaft.

[15] The Sutter Buttes figure prominently in the creation stories and other traditions of the indigenous Nisenan, Maidu, and Wintun peoples.

According to anthropologist Alfred Kroeber, the Patwin village where the city of Colusa now stands was the "hotbed" where the Kuksu Cult was established.

A part of the 851st Strategic Missile Squadron headquartered at nearby Beale Air Force Base, the site was designated "851-B."

[27] Designed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers to survive a nuclear attack, the Titan 1 complexes were the largest and most hardened of the first-generation ICBM facilities.

[32] In September 2016, a US Air Force Lockheed U-2 from the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron crashed in the Sutter Buttes during a training mission, killing one of the two pilots.

Since the state acquired some of the Buttes, it intends to redevelop its public access but the neighboring ranchers are highly hostile to that idea.

In 2003, the California Department of Parks and Recreation purchased 1,785 acres (722 ha) of land within the Sutter Buttes for $2.9 million.

On the loop around the mountain, every access road has posted warning signs stating private property and refusing trespassers.