Devils Tower, Wyoming - America's First National Monument

In a remote corner of northeast Wyoming a bizarre stone monolith rises more than 1,200 feet above the Belle Fourche River. Known as "Bear Lodge" and other mysterious names by generations of plains Indians, it was named Devils Tower by Colonel Richard Dodge in 1875. Later, it became a favorite meeting place for local settlers, and starting with the first ascent in 1893, a favorite climbers' challenge for over a century.

Devils Tower was proclaimed by President Theodore Roosevelt as America's first national monument in 1906. It was the first use of the Antiquities Act to protect a natural or cultural resource from commercial exploitation.

The tower was originally thought to be the core remnant of an ancient volcano but is now thought to be an "igneous intrusion". As shown in the diagram at right, top to bottom, molten magma was forced into layers of sedimentary rocks but remained underground (top). The magma cooled into columns of igneous rock when the flow became inactive (middle). The tower became exposed as the adjacent sedimentary rock which is softer wore away (bottom). (Diagram, courtesy National Park Service.)

Due to its remoteness, the monument is very quiet and unspoiled. The campground was in a bend of the Belle Fourche River, in a very lush and peaceful setting. We saw deer in the distance. There is also a large prarie dog town a short distance from the camp.

Of course, for many people of my generation, Devils Tower will always be associated with Steven Spielberg's 1977 classic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The tower was the locale for the secret rendevous with the alien spacecraft. When I asked the campground host if he had seen any aliens lately, he only stared at me blankly. When I reminded him of the movie, he said he didn't believe in such things. Sad to say, not everyone is a movie fan.