Gold Butte National Monument, 296,937 acres (90,506 hectares), SE Utah, est. 2016 and managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Named for a mining ghost town, the monument embraces a rugged desert landscape of chiseled red Aztec sandstone and twisting canyons at the convergence of the Mojave Desert, Great Basin, and Colorado Plateau that also is an important wildlife corridor between the Virgin Mountains and Lake Mead. The traditional home of the Southern Paiute, the area contains noted ancient rock art. Joshua trees, Mojave yuccas, and cholla and prickly pear cactuses as well as creosote bush, chaparral, and Las Vegas bearpoppy abound. The desert tortoise, desert bighorn sheep, banded gila monster, roadrunner, great horned owl, golden eagle, Gambel's quail, and chukar partridge are among the animals found there.
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