Devils Tower

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title: "Devils Tower" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["devils-tower-national-monument", "1906-establishments-in-the-united-states", "archaeological-sites-in-wyoming", "black-hills", "climbing-areas-of-wyoming", "columnar-basalts-of-wyoming", "geomyths", "kiowa", "lakota-mythology", "landforms-of-crook-county,-wyoming", "monoliths-of-the-united-states", "museums-in-crook-county,-wyoming", "national-park-service-national-monuments-in-wyoming", "national-register-of-historic-places-in-crook-county,-wyoming", "natural-history-museums-in-wyoming", "paleocene-volcanism", "properties-of-religious-function-on-the-national-register-of-historic-places-in-wyoming", "protected-areas-of-crook-county,-wyoming", "religious-places-of-the-indigenous-peoples-of-north-america", "rock-formations-of-wyoming", "sacred-mountains-of-the-united-states", "volcanic-plugs-of-the-united-states", "volcanism-of-wyoming", "volcanoes-of-wyoming", "folklore-of-wyoming", "second-100-iugs-geological-heritage-sites"] description: "Flat-topped volcanic plug in Wyoming, US" topic_path: "philosophy" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devils_Tower" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Flat-topped volcanic plug in Wyoming, US ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox mountain"]

Field	Value
name	Devils Tower
(Bear Lodge)
other_name	Matȟó Thípila (Lakota), Daxpitcheeaasáao (Crow)
photo	Devils_Tower_in_Wyoming.jpg
elevation_ft	5112
elevation_ref
range	Bear Lodge Mountains, part of the Black Hills
location	Crook County, Wyoming, United States
coordinates
coordinates_ref
topo	USGS Devils Tower
type	Laccolith
first_ascent	William Rogers and Willard Ripley, July 4, 1893
easiest_route	Durrance Route
mapframe-zoom	13
::

| name = Devils Tower (Bear Lodge) | other_name = Matȟó Thípila (Lakota), Daxpitcheeaasáao (Crow) | photo = Devils_Tower_in_Wyoming.jpg | photo_size = | photo_alt = | photo_caption = | elevation_ft = 5112 | elevation_ref = | prominence_ft = | prominence_ref = | range = Bear Lodge Mountains, part of the Black Hills | location = Crook County, Wyoming, United States | coordinates = | coordinates_ref = | topo = USGS Devils Tower | type = Laccolith | age = | first_ascent = William Rogers and Willard Ripley, July 4, 1893 | easiest_route = Durrance Route | mapframe-zoom = 13 | name = Devils Tower National Monument | iucn_category = III | iucn_ref = | photo = | photo_caption = | map = USA#USA Wyoming | label = Devils Tower | relief = 1 | map_caption = Location in the United States | location = | nearest_city = Hulett, Wyoming | coordinates = | area_acre = 1346 | area_ref = | established = | visitation_num = 499,031 | visitation_year = 2017 | visitation_ref = | governing_body = National Park Service | website = Devils Tower National Monument |image1 = Devils Tower Darton 1900.jpg |image2 = Belle Fourche River 19A.JPG |footer = Devils Tower in 1900 (left), and red sandstone and siltstone cliffs above the Belle Fourche River (right) |total_width = 440

Devils Tower (also known as Matȟó Thípila or Bear Lodge) is a laccolithic butte, composed of igneous rock in the Bear Lodge Ranger District of the Black Hills, near Hulett and Sundance in Crook County, northeastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River. It rises 1,267 ft above the Belle Fourche River, standing 867 ft from summit to base. The summit is 5,112 ft above sea level.

Devils Tower National Monument was the first United States national monument, established on September 24, 1906, by President Theodore Roosevelt. The monument's boundary encloses an area of 1347 acres.

Name

Indigenous names for the monolith include "Bear's House" or "Bear's Lodge" (or "Bear's Tipi", "Home of the Bear", "Bear's Lair"); Cheyenne, , ("Home of Bears"), "Aloft on a Rock" (Kiowa), "Tree Rock", "Great Gray Horn", and "Brown Buffalo Horn" ().

The name "Devil's Tower" originated in 1875 during an expedition led by Colonel Richard Irving Dodge, when his interpreter reportedly misinterpreted a native name to mean "Bad God's Tower". All information signs in that area use the name "Devils Tower", following a geographic naming standard whereby the apostrophe is omitted."Since its inception in 1890, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names has discouraged the use of the possessive form—the genitive apostrophe and the 's'. The possessive form using an 's' is allowed, but the apostrophe is almost always removed. The Board's archives contain no indication of the reason for this policy." {{cite web |url=http://geonames.usgs.gov/domestic/faqs.htm |title=USGS Frequently Asked Questions, #18 |publisher=United States Geological Survey |access-date=November 29, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025045154/http://geonames.usgs.gov/domestic/faqs.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=25 October 2012

In 2005, a proposal to recognize several indigenous ties through the additional designation of the monolith as Bear Lodge National Historic Landmark were opposed by United States Representative Barbara Cubin, arguing that a "name change will harm the tourist trade and bring economic hardship to area communities". In November 2014, Arvol Looking Horse proposed renaming the geographical feature "Bear Lodge" and submitted the request to the United States Board on Geographic Names. A second proposal was submitted to request that the U.S. acknowledge what it described as the "offensive" mistake in keeping the current name and to rename the monument and sacred site into Bear Lodge National Historic Landmark. The formal public comment period ended in fall 2015. Local state senator Ogden Driskill opposed the change. The name was not changed.

Geology

|image1 = Devils Tower National Monument geologic cross section.jpg |image2 = Devils Tower stratigraphic column.jpg |footer = Geologic cross section (left), and stratigraphic column (right) |total_width = 440 |image1 = Devils Tower NP sign Buried Tower.jpg |image2 = Devils Tower NP sign How Did the Tower Form?.jpg |footer = National monument markers depicting the sedimentary rocks in the area (left), and three theories explaining the origin of the igneous rocks (right) |total_width = 440 |image1 = Phonolite Porphyry of Devils Tower in Wyoming in USA - with scale.jpg |image2 = DevilsTowerCloseupByPhilKonstantin.jpg |footer = Devils Tower is composed of a porphyritic phonolite (left). Close-up view of the columns (right). |total_width = 440

The landscape surrounding Devils Tower is composed mostly of sedimentary rocks. The oldest rocks visible in Devils Tower National Monument were laid down in a shallow sea during the Triassic. During the Paleocene Epoch, 56 to 66 million years ago, the Rocky Mountains and the Black Hills were uplifted.

Geologists Carpenter and Russell studied Devils Tower in the late 19th century and came to the conclusion that it was formed by an igneous intrusion. In 1907, geologists Nelson Horatio Darton and C.C. O'Harra (of the South Dakota School of Mines) theorized that Devils Tower must be an eroded remnant of a laccolith.

The igneous material that forms the Tower is a phonolite porphyry intruded about 40.5 million years ago, a light to dark-gray or greenish-gray igneous rock with conspicuous crystals of white feldspar. As the magma cooled, hexagonal columns formed (though sometimes 4-, 5-, and 7-sided columns were possible), up to 20 ft wide and 600 ft tall.

As rain and snow continue to erode the sedimentary rocks surrounding the Tower's base, more of Devils Tower will be exposed. Nonetheless, the exposed portions of the Tower still experience certain amounts of erosion. Cracks along the columns are subject to water and ice erosion. Portions, or even entire columns, of rock at Devils Tower are continually breaking off and falling. Piles of broken columns, boulders, small rocks, and stones, called scree, lie at the base of the tower, indicating that it was once wider than it is today.

The geologically related Missouri Buttes are located 3.5 mi northwest of Devils Tower.

Climate

|location = Devils Tower #2, Wyoming, 1991–2020 normals, 1959–2020 extremes: 3862 ft (1177 m) |single line = Yes |Jan record high F = 65 |Feb record high F = 71 |Mar record high F = 80 |Apr record high F = 90 |May record high F = 97 |Jun record high F = 105 |Jul record high F = 108 |Aug record high F = 103 |Sep record high F = 103 |Oct record high F = 92 |Nov record high F = 80 |Dec record high F = 67 |year record high F =

|Jan avg record high F = 51.9 |Feb avg record high F = 54.7 |Mar avg record high F = 69.8 |Apr avg record high F = 79.1 |May avg record high F = 85.4 |Jun avg record high F = 91.5 |Jul avg record high F = 97.2 |Aug avg record high F = 96.4 |Sep avg record high F = 92.8 |Oct avg record high F = 82.7 |Nov avg record high F = 67.6 |Dec avg record high F = 53.9 |year avg record high F = 99.0

|Jan high F = 34.2 |Feb high F = 36.9 |Mar high F = 47.4 |Apr high F = 56.6 |May high F = 65.8 |Jun high F = 76.3 |Jul high F = 85.3 |Aug high F = 84.6 |Sep high F = 74.7 |Oct high F = 59.5 |Nov high F = 45.2 |Dec high F = 35.4 |year high F =

|Jan mean F = 21.0 |Feb mean F = 23.8 |Mar mean F = 34.1 |Apr mean F = 42.8 |May mean F = 52.4 |Jun mean F = 62.5 |Jul mean F = 70.0 |Aug mean F = 68.5 |Sep mean F = 58.4 |Oct mean F = 45.0 |Nov mean F = 32.1 |Dec mean F = 22.4 |year mean F =

|Jan low F = 7.8 |Feb low F = 10.8 |Mar low F = 20.8 |Apr low F = 28.9 |May low F = 39.1 |Jun low F = 48.7 |Jul low F = 54.7 |Aug low F = 52.4 |Sep low F = 42.1 |Oct low F = 30.4 |Nov low F = 18.9 |Dec low F = 9.3 |year low F =

|Jan avg record low F = -17.5 |Feb avg record low F = -14.0 |Mar avg record low F = -3.3 |Apr avg record low F = 10.8 |May avg record low F = 22.5 |Jun avg record low F = 34.7 |Jul avg record low F = 42.6 |Aug avg record low F = 38.8 |Sep avg record low F = 27.3 |Oct avg record low F = 12.3 |Nov avg record low F = -3.5 |Dec avg record low F = -13.1 |year avg record low F = -25.9

|Jan record low F = -41 |Feb record low F = -44 |Mar record low F = -32 |Apr record low F = -12 |May record low F = 11 |Jun record low F = 26 |Jul record low F = 31 |Aug record low F = 29 |Sep record low F = 14 |Oct record low F = -20 |Nov record low F = -35 |Dec record low F = -48 |year record low F =

|precipitation colour = green |Jan precipitation inch = 0.72 |Feb precipitation inch = 0.76 |Mar precipitation inch = 1.13 |Apr precipitation inch = 1.98 |May precipitation inch = 2.93 |Jun precipitation inch = 3.22 |Jul precipitation inch = 2.14 |Aug precipitation inch = 1.90 |Sep precipitation inch = 1.32 |Oct precipitation inch = 1.53 |Nov precipitation inch = 0.78 |Dec precipitation inch = 0.68 |year precipitation inch =

|Jan snow inch = 8.8 |Feb snow inch = 9.3 |Mar snow inch = 7.3 |Apr snow inch = 5.3 |May snow inch = 0.4 |Jun snow inch = 0.0 |Jul snow inch = 0.0 |Aug snow inch = 0.0 |Sep snow inch = 0.0 |Oct snow inch = 1.8 |Nov snow inch = 6.3 |Dec snow inch = 9.6 |year snow inch =

|source 1 = NOAA |url = https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/services/data/v1?dataset=normals-monthly-1991-2020&startDate=0001-01-01&endDate=9996-12-31&stations=USC00482466&format=pdf |title = Devils Tower #2, Wyoming 1991–2020 Monthly Normals |access-date = December 18, 2023 |source 2 = XMACIS (records & monthly max/mins) |url = https://xmacis.rcc-acis.org/ |publisher = National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration |title = xmACIS |access-date = December 18, 2023

Native American cultural beliefs

Devils Tower inspired many geomyths.

According to the traditional beliefs of Native American peoples, the Kiowa and Lakota, a group of girls went out to play and were spotted by several giant bears, who began to chase them. In an effort to escape the bears, the girls climbed atop a rock, fell to their knees, and prayed to the Great Spirit to save them. Hearing their prayers, the Great Spirit made the rock rise from the ground towards the heavens so that the bears could not reach the girls. The bears, in an effort to climb the rock, left deep claw marks in the sides, which had become too steep to climb. Those are the marks which appear today on the sides of Devils Tower. When the girls reached the sky, they were turned into the stars of the Pleiades.

Another version tells that two Sioux boys wandered far from their village when Mato the bear, a huge creature that had claws the size of tipi poles, spotted them, and wanted to eat them for breakfast. He was almost upon them when the boys prayed to Wakan Tanka the Creator to help them. They rose up on a huge rock, while Mato tried to get up from every side, leaving huge scratch marks as he did. Finally, he sauntered off, disappointed and discouraged. The bear came to rest east of the Black Hills at what is now Bear Butte. Wanblee, the eagle, helped the boys off the rock and back to their village. A painting depicting this legend by artist Herbert A. Collins hangs over the fireplace in the visitor center at Devils Tower.

In a Cheyenne version of the story, the giant bear pursues the girls and kills most of them. Two sisters escape back to their home with the bear still tracking them. They tell two boys that the bear can only be killed with an arrow shot through the underside of its foot. The boys have the sisters lead the bear to Devils Tower and trick it into thinking they have climbed the rock. The boys attempt to shoot the bear through the foot while it repeatedly attempts to climb up and slides back down leaving more claw marks each time. The bear was finally scared off when an arrow came very close to its left foot. This last arrow continued to go up and never came down.

Wooden Leg, a Northern Cheyenne, recounted another legend told to him by an old man while they were traveling together past Devils Tower around 1866–1868. An Indigenous man decided to sleep at the base of Bear Lodge next to a buffalo head. In the morning, he discovered that both he and the buffalo head had been transported to the top of the rock by the Great Medicine, with no way to descend. He spent another day and night on the rock without food or water. After praying all day and then going to sleep, he awoke to find that the Great Medicine had brought him back down to the ground, but had left the buffalo head at the top near the edge. Wooden Leg asserted that the buffalo head was clearly visible through the old man's spyglass. At that time, the tower had never been climbed, and a buffalo head at the top was otherwise inexplicable.

The buffalo head gives this story special significance for the Northern Cheyenne. All the Cheyenne maintained in their camps a sacred teepee to the Great Medicine containing the tribal sacred objects. In the case of the Northern Cheyenne, the sacred object was a buffalo head.

N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa) was given the name Tsoai-talee (Rock Tree Boy) by Pohd-lohk, a Kiowa elder, linking the child to the Devils Tower bear myth. To reinforce this mythic connection, his parents took him there. Momaday incorporated the bear myth as unifying subtext into his 1989 novel The Ancient Child.

U.S. history

Fur trappers may have visited Devils Tower, but they left no written evidence of having done so. The first documented non-Indigenous visitors were members of Captain William F. Raynolds's 1859 expedition to Yellowstone. Sixteen years later, Colonel Richard I. Dodge escorted an Office of Indian Affairs scientific survey party to the massive rock formation and coined the name Devils Tower. Recognizing its unique characteristics, the United States Congress designated the area a U.S. forest reserve in 1892 and in 1906 Devils Tower became the nation's first National monument.

Climbing

Main article: Durrance Route

|image1 = Devls Tower Ladder.jpg |image2 = ClimbDevilsTower.jpg |footer = Old climbing ladder on Devils Tower (left), and a climber on the tower (right) |total_width = 440 ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/2003-08-16_Devils_Tower_advisory.jpg" caption="A sign informs visitors of the Native American heritage."] ::

As of 1994, climbing Devils Tower had increased in popularity. About 1.3% of the monument's 400,000 annual visitors climbed Devils Tower, mostly using traditional climbing techniques. The first known ascent of Devils Tower by any method occurred on July 4, 1893, and is credited to William Rogers and Willard Ripley, local ranchers in the area. They completed this first ascent after constructing a ladder of wooden pegs driven into cracks in the rock face. A few of these wooden pegs are still intact and are visible on the tower when hiking along the 1.3 mi Tower Trail at Devils Tower National Monument. Over the following 30 years, many climbs were made using this method before the ladder fell into disrepair.

The first ascent using modern climbing techniques was made by Fritz Wiessner with William P. House and Lawrence Coveney in 1937. Wiessner led almost the entire climb free, placing only a single piece of fixed gear, a piton, which he later regretted, deeming it unnecessary.

In 1941 George Hopkins parachuted onto Devils Tower, without permission, as a publicity stunt resulting from a bet. He had intended to descend by a 1,000 ft rope dropped to him after successfully landing on the butte, but the package containing the rope, a sledgehammer and a car axle to be driven into the rock as an anchor point slid over the edge. As the weather deteriorated, a second attempt was made to drop equipment, but Hopkins deemed it unusable after the rope became snarled and frozen due to the rain and wind. Hopkins was stranded for six days, exposed to cold, rain and 50 mph winds before a mountain rescue team led by Jack Durrance, who had successfully climbed Devils Tower in 1938, finally reached him and brought him down. His entrapment and rescue was widely covered by the media of the time.

Today, hundreds of climbers scale the sheer rock walls of Devils Tower each summer. The most common route is the Durrance Route, which was the second free route established in 1938. There are many established and documented climbing routes covering every side of the tower, ascending the various vertical cracks and columns of the rock. The difficulty of these routes ranges from relatively easy to some of the most challenging in the world. All climbers are required to register with a park ranger before and after attempting a climb. No overnight camping at the summit is allowed; climbers return to base on the same day they ascend.

The Tower is sacred to several Plains tribes, including the Lakota, Cheyenne and Kiowa. Because of this, many Native American leaders objected to climbers ascending the monument, considering this to be a desecration. The climbers argued that they had a right to climb the Tower, since it is on federal land. A compromise was eventually reached with a voluntary climbing ban during the month of June when the tribes are conducting ceremonies around the monument. Climbers are asked, but not required, to stay off the Tower in June. According to the PBS documentary In the Light of Reverence, approximately 85% of climbers honor the ban and voluntarily choose not to climb the Tower during the month of June. However, several climbers along with the Mountain States Legal Foundation sued the Park Service, claiming an inappropriate government entanglement with religion.

Incidents

Seven people have died climbing Devils Tower in the park's 118 year history. Rescues of stranded and under-equipped climbers on the formation are common. The most recent fatality was in September 2024, when a climber fell to his death while descending, leaving his climbing partner stranded without a rope on the face of the tower until help arrived.[[File:DevilsTowerInfoSignDeer.jpg|thumb|Deer grazing at the national monument entrance]]

Wildlife

Devils Tower National Monument protects many species of wildlife, such as white-tailed deer, prairie dogs, and bald eagles.

In popular culture

• The 1977 movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind used the formation as a plot element and as the location of its climactic scenes. The film's popularity resulted in a large increase in visitors and climbers to the monument.

National Register of Historic Places

Four areas of Devils Tower National Monument are on the National Register of Historic Places:

• Entrance Road
• Entrance Station
• Old Headquarters Area Historic District
• Tower Ladder

References

Bibliography

Marquis

• Darton, Nelson Horatio (1909). Geology and water resources of the northern portion of the Black Hills and adjoining regions in South Dakota and Wyoming. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 65 (1909). .
• Marquis, Thomas B. (2003). Wooden Leg: A Warrior Who Fought Custer. Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, Bison Books. . . .

References

1. "Apsáalooke Place Names Database". Little Big Horn College.
2. {{cite peakbagger
3. {{cite gnis
4. "Devils Tower in United States of America". [[IUCN]].
5. {{NPS area. (2011)
6. (24 September 1906). "Proclamation 658: Setting aside Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming".
7. {{NPS visitation
8. "''Mato Tipila'', or Bear's Lodge, the stunning monolith of stone in northeastern Wyoming that settlers dubbed 'Devil's Tower.{{'"}} Jason Mark, ''Satellites in the High Country: Searching for the Wild in the Age of Man'' (2015), [https://books.google.com/books?id=-5x4CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA166 p. 166]. "Devil's Tower, beyond the Black Hills, forms the Buffalo's Head, with the face, Bear Butte as the Buffalo's Nose, and ''Inyan Kaga'' as the Black Buffalo Horn." Jessica Dawn Palmer, ''The Dakota Peoples: A History of the Dakota, Lakota and Nakota through 1863'' (2011), [https://books.google.com/books?id=vRAQm175ii0C&pg=PA203 p. 203].
9. "Devils Tower First 50 Years". National Park Service.
10. "Little Big Horn College Library".
11. "Why is it called Devils Tower? Some Native Americans called it Mato Tipila, meaning Bear Lodge. Other Native American names include Bear's Tipi, Home of the Bear, Tree Rock and Great Gray Horn. In 1875, on an expedition led by Col. Dodge, it is believed his interpreter misinterpreted the name to mean Bad God's Tower, later shortened to Devils Tower." [https://www.nps.gov/deto/faqs.htm NPS Frequently Asked Questions], accessed July 22, 2008.
12. "Cubin Fights Devils Tower Name Change".
13. (June 22, 2015). "Request made to change Devils Tower name to Bear Lodge". [[Rapid City Journal]].
14. (June 20, 2015). "Proposal could rename Devils Tower to Bear Lodge (with PDFs)". Casper Star-Tribune.
15. (1956). "Geology of Devils Tower National Monument, USGS Bulletin 1021-I". USGS.
16. (1934). "A Report on the Geology of Devils Tower National Monument". U.S. Department of the Interior.
17. (March 21, 2018). "Facts on the Devils Tower in Wyoming". USA Today.
18. Bassett, W.A.. (October 1961). "Potassium-Argon Age of Devils Tower, Wyoming". Science.
19. Woolley, A. R. (1987). ''Alkaline Rocks and Carbonatites of the World, Part 1: North and South America''. London, British Museum (Natural History), University of Texas Press, page 126
20. Robert Burnham, Jr.: ''Burnham's Celestial Handbook'', Vol. 3, p. 1867
21. [[#Marquis. Marquis]], pp. 53–54
22. [[#Marquis. Marquis]], pp. 54–55
23. [[#Marquis. Marquis]] pp. 106, 152
24. "N. Scott Momaday, Kiowa/Cherokee".
25. "An Overview of Post-1960 Native American Literature".
26. Dodge, Richard. (1996). "The Black Hills journals of Colonel Richard Irving Dodge". University of Oklahoma Press.
27. "Listing of National Park System Areas by State". National Park Service.
28. [https://www.nps.gov/deto/planyourvisit/loader.cfm?csModule=security/getfile&PageID=514740 Devils Tower NM – Final Climbing Management Plan] [[National Park Service]], page 4, February 1995, accessed March 13, 2009
29. "Parachutist George Hopkins – Devils Tower National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)".
30. Dorst, John Darwin. (1999). "Looking West". University of Pennsylvania Press.
31. (October 7, 1941). "Parachutist gains five pounds while stranded on rock". The Victoria Advocate.
32. (October 7, 1941). "Alpinists bring down man on Devil's Tower; 'rather go back than face crowd,' he says". [[The New York Times]].
33. "devilstowerclimbing.com".
34. [https://web.archive.org/web/20040820181334/http://www.sacredland.org/ITLOR_pages/three_stories.html Sacred Land Film Project], Devils Tower.
35. Kalman, Chris. (July 25, 2018). "It's Time to Rethink Climbing on Devils Tower".
36. "NPS Incident Reports - Devils Tower National Monument".
37. (2024-09-25). "Fall kills climber and strands partner on Wyoming's Devils Tower".
38. "Mammals – Devils Tower National Monument". U.S. National Park Service.
39. "Birds – Devils Tower National Monument". U.S. National Park Service.
40. "Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)". Filmsite.
41. Buckland, Warren. (2006). "Directed by Steven Spielberg: Poetics of The Contemporary Hollywood Blockbuster". The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc..
42. Carlson, Allen. (2009). "Nature and Landscape: An Introduction to Environmental Aesthetics". Columbia University Press.

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