# US: Easternmost occurrence of a western geographical feature, such as a Mesa, Butte, Hoodoo, etc.? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 2, 2012, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-easternmost-occurrence-of-a-western-geographical-feature-such-as-a-mesa-butte-hoodoo-etc/617584 "2012-04-02T15:26:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2012, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-easternmost-occurrence-of-a-western-geographical-feature-such-as-a-mesa-butte-hoodoo-etc/617584/1 "2012-04-02T15:26:04Z")
I truly tried my google-fu, but couldn’t find an answer…kind of a vague question anyway, I guess, but perhaps there are some fellow geo-geeks or folks with local knowledge here that might know. I do know that on I-40, once you get somewhere past Oklahoma City, you start seeing these sorts of features, but I’d bet there are some that occur a bit east of there. Any ideas or even random references to oddball geographical features are welcome, too. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2012, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-easternmost-occurrence-of-a-western-geographical-feature-such-as-a-mesa-butte-hoodoo-etc/617584/2 "2012-04-03T16:55:57Z")
Just a bump in case anybody might have an idea. I might resort to some Google Earth-ing and come up with some possibilities. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2012, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-easternmost-occurrence-of-a-western-geographical-feature-such-as-a-mesa-butte-hoodoo-etc/617584/3 "2012-04-03T17:06:41Z")
Not sure exactly about physical geography, but I’ve seen cactus on the east coast in either NJ or Pennsylvania. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2012, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-easternmost-occurrence-of-a-western-geographical-feature-such-as-a-mesa-butte-hoodoo-etc/617584/4 "2012-04-03T17:26:41Z")
As you head north from New Haven, CT, on I-91, you will see a butte-like structure on your right. The Mt. Holoyoke Mountains (Western MA) have columns reminiscent of Devils Post Pile in Wyoming. And Purgatory Chasm (Central MA) looks like a western box canyon. ---
**Author:** ![whc.03grady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@whc.03grady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whc.03grady)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2012, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-easternmost-occurrence-of-a-western-geographical-feature-such-as-a-mesa-butte-hoodoo-etc/617584/5 "2012-04-03T17:53:02Z")
Settlers on the Oregon Trail took Chimney Rock in Western Nebraska to be a sign that the East was truly behind you. The Badlands in South Dakota are pretty Western-y, and are further East than Chimney Rock. [Map](http://www.google.com/maps/ms?msid=208075790844763513407.0004bcc9e664b6014f123&msa=0&ll=42.512602,-102.282715&spn=5.287571,8.470459) ---
**Author:** ![awldune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2012, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-easternmost-occurrence-of-a-western-geographical-feature-such-as-a-mesa-butte-hoodoo-etc/617584/6 "2012-04-03T18:11:33Z")
Possibly of interest, > **[Jug Rock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jug_Rock)** > > Jug Rock is a natural geological formation located outside of Shoals, Indiana, in the valley of the East Fork of the White River. It is composed of sandstone, and is the largest free-standing table rock formation (also called a "mushroom rock") in the United States east of the Mississippi River. It is part of the Mansfield formation, laid down in the Pennsylvanian geological epoch, roughly 325 to 286 million years ago. Erosion along fracture lines separated it from a nearby cliff. A companio... > [@](#): > > the largest free-standing table rock formation (also called a “tea table”) in the United States east of the Mississippi River ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2012, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-easternmost-occurrence-of-a-western-geographical-feature-such-as-a-mesa-butte-hoodoo-etc/617584/7 "2012-04-03T19:01:30Z")
This is probably not quite what you’re looking for, but [Seneca Rocks](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_Rocks) in West Virginia is one of the most “Western”-looking formations I’ve seen in the eastern U.S. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2012, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-easternmost-occurrence-of-a-western-geographical-feature-such-as-a-mesa-butte-hoodoo-etc/617584/8 "2012-04-03T19:33:27Z")
Natural bridge VA [http://www.virginiaplaces.org/geology/naturalbridge.html](http://www.virginiaplaces.org/geology/naturalbridge.html) Of course, it would look more “Western” if it wasn’t for allt hat lush vegetation 😉 ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2012, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-easternmost-occurrence-of-a-western-geographical-feature-such-as-a-mesa-butte-hoodoo-etc/617584/9 "2012-04-03T19:36:45Z")
Many features that we think of as looking “western” look that way because of a combination of two major factors: geology, and vegetation. Vegetation, of course, depends greatly on rainfall (and temperature). In other words, there are examples of typically “western” geologic features further East, but they tend not to look so western because of the green, lush vegetation on and around them. So, you’re right on about a north-south line cutting through Oklahoma City as being just about where the rainfall gets low enough (as you move west) that things start to look more “western”. (Notice how this is a northward continuation of the western edge of the Gulf of Mexico. No coincidence – that’s where much of the moisture east of this line comes from.) That said, allow me to mention [Chimney Bluffs](http://www.nyfalls.com/lakes/ontario-chimney-bluffs-state-park.html), on Lake Ontario in upstate New York, as a quite Western-looking landscape. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2012, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-easternmost-occurrence-of-a-western-geographical-feature-such-as-a-mesa-butte-hoodoo-etc/617584/10 "2012-04-03T20:05:11Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > That said, allow me to mention [Chimney Bluffs](http://www.nyfalls.com/lakes/ontario-chimney-bluffs-state-park.html), on Lake Ontario in upstate New York, as a quite Western-looking landscape. And a [Helluva Good](http://www.heluvagood.com/about/?id=1267) place it is too! ---
**Author:** ![kurtisokc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kurtisokc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kurtisokc)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-easternmost-occurrence-of-a-western-geographical-feature-such-as-a-mesa-butte-hoodoo-etc/617584/11 "2012-04-04T01:20:06Z")
Any answer would have to be ambiguous partly because how geogrphical features are labled is determined largely by culture. The word “mesa” (Spainish for “table”) was adopted as a name for a type of flat-toped hill found in certain parts of the western United States, but that doesn’t mean that their aren’t hills in other places which look very similar, even if they aren’t given the same label. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-easternmost-occurrence-of-a-western-geographical-feature-such-as-a-mesa-butte-hoodoo-etc/617584/12 "2012-04-04T10:10:38Z")
Thanks for the interesting posts, folks! I agree with **JKellyMap** that more than geology defines the “westernness” of the terrain. We have canyons and gorges and eroded sandstone, etc. in the eastern US, but the vegetation makes it different. I like those things, too! For instance, the Ozarks are an eroded plateau, and if not for the vegetation, some areas would look like canyonlands\*\*. \*\*There’s a flat-topped mountain that dominates the landscape in my hometown that looks a lot like a mesa, [Mt. Nebo](http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/14637194.jpg). In Oklahoma, things really start looking that way somewhere in the middle of the state. The [Wichita Mountains](http://tripokay.com/upimg/litimg/070921/1J24519321.jpg) are pretty western looking, and the [Glass Mountains](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_Mountains)seem pretty full-on. Both of them are around that prairie/plains divide. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-easternmost-occurrence-of-a-western-geographical-feature-such-as-a-mesa-butte-hoodoo-etc/617584/13 "2012-04-04T12:08:18Z")
What’s a hoodoo? ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2012, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-easternmost-occurrence-of-a-western-geographical-feature-such-as-a-mesa-butte-hoodoo-etc/617584/14 "2012-04-04T14:54:12Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > What’s a hoodoo? [Bryce Canyon](http://www.desertusa.com/mag03/feb/hoodo.html) is the prototypical example of hoodoos. It seems like the “Western” formations mostly start along a line running through extreme western North and South Dakota (Badlands), Nebraska (Chimney Rock), Kansas and Oklahoma, and western Texas. But there are isolated formations east of that line, such as these [pedestals](http://cormackphotos.blogspot.com/2011/10/pedestal-rocks-falling-water-falls.html) in the Ozarks.