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Why
Devils Tower
is special
Devils Tower is a natural monolith in remote northeast Wyoming. It spectacularly
soars 240 meters (800 feet) above the surrounding landscape. It is sacred to
American Indians, staggering to tourists, and exciting to rock climbers.
Devils Tower
tips & insights
 It
formed 50 million years ago when rising molten rock (magna) cooled and
solidified before it had a chance to pierce the earth's surface to create a
volcano. (Geologist call the action igneous intrusion).
Devils
Tower remained underground until two million years ago when water and wind erosion
began removing the comparatively softer sedimentary rock around it. Slowly, more
and more of buried Devils Tower was exposed to earthly eyes. The process
continues.
Devils
Tower is not flat surfaced, though it appears to be from afar. Its sides consist of hexagonal columns, which nature
sometimes creates from magna as it cools and contracts (a process called
crystallization). The furrowed columns are up to 2.4 meters (8 feet) wide. For a
sense of scale, notice the climber standing on one of the columns in the
close-up photo below.
There
are many Indian legends about the rock. My favorite tells us that a hungry bear
tried to attack seven little girls picking flowers. To protect them, the Great
Spirit raised the rock they were standing on (which created the monolith) and
transformed them into stars (the Pleiades Constellation). The bear's
unsuccessful attempt to climb up left claw marks (the vertical cracks between
the columns).
Devils
Tower is the place where the alien spacecraft landed in the hit 1977 movie
"Close Encounters of the Third Kind".
Thousands
of rock-climbers scale the monolith per year.
In
1995, the National Park Service asked climbers to voluntarily not scale Devils
Tower every June to allow American Indians to hold their sacred
ceremonies without distractions. This request has generated serious displeasure
among some climbers, but most have obliged.
For
non-climbers, a 2.2 kilometer (1.3 mile) nature trail encircles Devils Tower.
About
400,000 people visit the Devils Tower National Park each year.
Grammatically,
the name should be "Devil's Tower", with the apostrophe. The error has been
around ever since a geologist named it in 1875.
American
Indians call it by various names. Bears Lodge is the most common.
It
has been whimsically described as a "giant tree stump".
 
American cuisine
 
 
 
 
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