The first time the buttes were mentioned in writing was on September 12, 1865, in the diary of Major Lyman G. Bennett, the chief engineering officer accompanying Colonel Nelson D. Cole's column of the Powder River Expedition.

[2] Bennett wrote: Marched on west side of Powder River, crossing in the morning.

The road was generally good, being on second bottom with high rocky mountains on either side the valley, the tops of many being covered with pine.

Between the early 1980s and 2005, the buttes were owned by Andrew L. Lewis Jr., the 7th United States Secretary of Transportation.

Terrett Butte is located on private land, about two hundred yards east of Powder River East Road South, about 17 miles (27 km) southwest of present-day Broadus, Montana, in south-central Powder River County, Montana.