Plum Buttes.—A little southwest of the present station of Silica, on the old trail between Atlanta (now Lyons) and Ellinwood, were three sand hills known as Plum Buttes. They were about 120 feet higher than the surrounding prairie, but only about 25 feet higher than the sand hills still a prominent feature of that locality, and were once covered with the common sand hill plums. Prof. Bernard B. Smyth, a former resident of that section and the authority for this statement, says that between the years 1865 and 1884 a gradual "blow out" occurred, which resulted in leveling the buttes and even creating a wide channel or valley in the hills upon which they stood. The site of these sand hills covered the greater portion of townships 19 and 20 in Rice county, and is now occupied by productive farms.