Devil's Tower National Monument

Devils Tower is the United States' first national monument, proclaimed by Teddy Roosevelt on September 24, 1906. It is over 1,000 ft across, 275 ft across the top, and 1,280 ft high.

Geology

Some 60 million years ago, a mass of molten lava was forced up through the overlying sedimentary rocks. As it cooled and contracted, vertical fractures formed in the magma, creating long columnar joints. Some of these columns are as much as 14 ft in diameter. Eventually the nearby Belle Fourche River eroded away the surrounding sedimentary rock, leaving the ancient volcanic neck exposed to the elements.

Devils Tower is only one of several monuments (laccoliths) in a system created in the same manner. The volcanic flow which caused the system was complex and massive, ranging over the entire north end of the mountain range. the flow never erupted. Instead it cooled in the pipes and was eventually exposed. The monuments in this system are the Missouri Buttes, Devils Tower, Bear Lodge Mountains (to the east of the Tower), Sundance Mountain, Green Mountain, Inyan Kara, Black Butte, Nigger Hill, Mineral Hill, Crow Peak, Citadel Rock, Ragged Top Mountain, Custer Peak, and Bear Butte.

Indians

The tower was a landmark of the Sioux, who called it Mato Tipi (Bear Lodge). Near it, Sitting Bull made medicine and received the gods' assurance of victory in one of his greatest campaigns.

Sioux legend tells that three maidens gathering wild flowers here were beset by bears. To escape, they climbed up on a large boulder; the gods, seeing their distress, made the rock higher. As the bears tried to climb the rock, it continued rising, until at last the bears fell and were killed. The girls braided their flowers into a rope, by means of which they reached the plain. The channels in the tower wall are marks left by the bears' claws.

Another Indian legend tells a similar story. The tribe was camped on a stream far to the north, where many bears lived. One day the bears chased seven little girls, who were playing at a distance from the village. The girls jumped upon a low rock and prayed: "Rock take pity on us! Rock save us!" The rock shot upward, and, when the bears jumped at it, the children were pushed up to the sky, where they remained. They are known to white men as the Seven Sisters, or the Pleiades.

And the Kiowa have yet another version. Eight children were there at play, seven sisters and their brother. Suddenly the boy was struck dumb; he trembled and began to run upon his hands and feet. His fingers became claws, and his body was covered with fur. Directly there was a bear where the boy had been. The sisters were terrified; they ran, and the bear chased after them. They came upon the stump of a great tree, and the tree spoke to them. It bade them to climb upon it, and as they did so it began to rise into the air. The bear came to kill them, but they were just beyond its reach. It reared against the tree and scored the bark all around with its claws. The seven sisters were borne into the sky by the Great Spirit, and they became the stars of the Big Dipper.

Historical Background

Devils Tower was known to Indian tribes by a variety of names, most commonly as Bear Lodge, Tree Lodge, or Bear's Tipi. Fur trappers and early explorer certainly knew of the existence of the structure, but it wasn't until 1857 that mention was made of it - an exploration party led by Lt. G.K. Warren saw the rock formation from a distance. In 1875, Col. Richard I. Dodge, finally led a U.S. Geological Survey party to the formation. Dodge somehow came up with the name Devils Tower, claiming that the Indians called it "Bad God's Tower." Despite protests that "Bear Lodge had long been the aboriginal name, the label Devils Tower stuck.

After the Indians had been driven from their traditional homeland in the 1870s, northeast Wyoming opened to settlement by whites. Most lands were available to the homesteaders, but the General Land Office prevented developers from gaining the tower. Wyoming already had America's first national park in Yellowstone, and soon support grew to make the tower a park. After years of effort, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Devils Tower the country's first national monument in 1906.

On one side of the Tower, William Rogers built a wooden ladder. This now decaying set of wooden steps was part of a 350 ft ladder made of oak, ash and willow. Each step was 24-30 inches long and sharpened on one end. The wood was driven into a continuous vertical crack. On July 4, 1893, people came from over 100 miles away to witness the first formal accent to Devils Tower. Two years later, Roger's wife duplicated the feat and became the first woman to reach the summit.