A Crow legend describes a story about two young girls playing around some big rocks. A large bear, which were common in the area, started to chase them so they climbed one of the rocks to get away from the bear. They were just about to be caught by the bear when the Great Spirit saw their predicament and caused the rock to grow up out of the ground, rising high above the bear with the girls on top. The bear tried to climb and jump on the rock, causing great claw marks in the rock. The bear was unsuccessful, and the legend claims the two girls are still on top of the formation.
According to the Crow, the rock is known as Bear’s House. Other Indigenous tribes call the rock Bear Lodge and Bear’s Tipi, but most know it today as Devils Tower.
Rising 867 feet from the base, Devils Tower is a recognizable landmark in the otherwise gently rolling hills and grasslands of the Belle Fourche River Valley of northeast Wyoming.
Featured prominently in the Steven Spielberg movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” as the rendezvous site with the aliens, Devil’s Tower is a monolith made up of symmetrical columns of a rare igneous rock called phonolite porphyry. These tall columns, with some more than 600 feet tall and 10 to 20 feet wide, are the largest in the world.
Although scientists agree that the tower began as magma and the resulting type of rock, they don’t agree on how the rock formed. According to the National Park Service website, “the simplest explanation is that Devils Tower is a stock — a small intrusive body formed by magma which cooled underground and was later exposed by erosion.”
Established as America’s first national monument in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt, the rocky sentinel also has a long history of significance for more than 20 Indigenous tribes. Each of the tribes, including Cheyenne, Crow, Kiowa, Arapahoe and Lakota, have their own story about how the rocky formation came to be.
The importance of this rock formation is so sacred in local cultures that many come to leave prayer bundles, small strips of cloth tied to trees. Although only the person who left the bundle knows the exact prayer, the colorful flags seen throughout the park are a reminder to pause and think about someone you love.
Including the tower, the monument covers 1,347 acres, with a mix of ponderosa pine forest, rolling plains and grasslands. Within this region, visitors can expect to see white-tailed deer, coyotes, black-tailed prairie dogs, a wide variety of birds — including a very large population of wild turkeys — and porcupines.
A trail – the Tower Trail — circumnavigates the base of the tower, which is one mile around. The 1.3-mile paved loop trail is described as easy but rises and falls in some steep sections as it passes through ponderosa forest and boulder fields of fallen columns.
Devils Tower is also a popular place for rock climbers, attracting more than 5,000 climbers each year to use the more than 200 rock climbing routes to reach the one-and-a-half-acre summit.
When visiting Devils Tower National Monument, plan to take some time to explore the Black Hills region. Even though Devil’s Tower sits in a remote location in the Black Hills of Wyoming, the area, including western South Dakota, offers a surprising array of activities. A few of these destinations include Little Bighorn Battlefield, Badlands National Park, Wind Cave National Park, Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore, the historic towns of Deadwood and Sturgis, and more.
To really make sure you check off everything the region offers, take the 90-minute drive to the geographical center of the U.S. It may only be a flag in the ground to mark the location, but how many people do you know that can say they have visited middle America?
Devils Tower National Monument is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. There are two seasonal closures on the tower – in April and June – to protect nesting falcons and respect American Indian cultural values associated with the Tower site, respectively.
There is an entrance fee for Devils Tower National Monument, which is covered by a federal interagency pass. Climbers must register at the climber kiosk prior to going into any area beyond the boulder field at the base of Devils Tower. Leashed pets are allowed at the monument but not on trails or in park buildings.
Devils Tower National Monument is located near Hulett, Wyo., where lodging is limited. There is a seasonal first-come, first-served campground, open May 15 to Oct. 15.
For more information about the monument, visit https://www.nps.gov/deto/index.htm.
