About 15,500 years ago, in a place that is now known as the Black Rock Desert in west-central Utah, a volcano explosively erupted from the bottom of the rising Ice Age Lake Bonneville. Pahvant Butte (also known as Pavant Butte of Sugarloaf) ejected shreds of basalt lava high into the air that quickly cooled into glassy particles the size of sand (volcanic ash) and gravel (volcanic cinders) collectively known as tuff. The explosion produced a crater on the south face of Pahvant Butte. During the eruption the wind must have been blowing to the northeast; black volcanic ash from the eruption is found in sand dunes northeast of Pahvant Butte. When the eruption ceased, a volcanic cone called a tuff cone was left to the mercy of erosion by Lake Bonneville. The rising Lake Bonneville was only 50 feet below its highest level when the eruption occurred. The highest point on Pahvant Butte was at least 435 feet above the water at the time. Waves carved a shelf around most of the volcano except for the north face where intense storm waves cut a vertical cliff into the cone. The cut exposes an intricate lacey pattern caused by the partial cementing of the tuff by minerals in ground water. The cliff is known as the "Lace Curtain" because of its white color and mysterious lacey pattern. Today the highest point on Pahvant Butte is 5,486 feet above sea level. The entire volcano is about 740 feet above the ground surface and 2 miles in diameter.
in 1923, a man was hired and paid by Millard County to construct a windmill site for the generation of electricity in nearby communities and farms. Unfortunately, before construction was completed, this character disappeared with the money, leaving behind the skeleton that remains today.
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