Interesting Facts About Devils Tower National Monument - Fun Facts About Devils Tower National Monument

The solitary and stump-shaped granite formation, looming up to 1,267 feet above Belle Fourche River Valley, Devils Tower National Monument is a gorgeous and spectacular piece of geological wonder. Standing erect like a skyscraper in the Black Hills, near Hulett and Sundance in Crook County, northeastern Wyoming, USA, the monument is a resultant of erosion and volcanic eruption that stripped away the softer layers of rocks from beneath the earth’s surface, thus revealing the magnificent Devils Tower. The monument was declared as America’s first national monument by President Theodore Roosevelt on September 24, 1906. Though the monument was not a household name, the 1977 blockbuster movie ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ made this otherwise less-known structure globally famous. Find out some more interesting and fun facts about the Devils Tower National Monument.

Interesting & Fun Facts About Devils Tower National Monument

The Devils Tower rises 1,267 feet above the surrounding Belle Fourche River, while the top is 5,112 feet above sea level.
The monument is a stone pillar measuring 1,000 feet in diameter at the base narrowing to 275 feet at the top. This serves as the biggest challenge to climb this premier rock in the Black Hills.
The Devils Tower is made up of phonolite porphyry, a grayish rock studded with feldspar crystals. After the volcanic eruption, as the magma started cooling underneath, it left back hexagonal columns, though four to seven sides are noticeable as well.
The monument is encircled by a park spreading over 1,347 acres that is covered by pine forests, woodlands and grasslands.
The Devils Tower has more than seven miles of hiking trails that offer tourists various opportunities of viewing wildlife, admiring bird species and capturing the breathtaking scenic beauty of the place.
Animals, like white-tailed deer, bison and black-tailed prairie dog, are a common sight here apart from the other wildlife that resides in the surrounding areas.
While the air is filled with the magnificent scent of Ponderosa pines, the entire blue sky is covered by hawks, turkey vultures, bald and golden eagles, and prairie falcons.
The American Indians consider the monument to be a sacred site of worship and hence, is also known as Bears Lodge by several northern plain tribes.
The monument was named Devils Tower when, during an expedition, Col. Richard Irving Dodge’s interpreter mistakably translated the native name of the structure as “Bad God’s Tower”.
The Wyoming state was governed by different tribes, such as Arapaho, Crow, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Lakota and Shoshone, before the Europeans and Americans migrated to this place.
The monolith was named as Aloft on a Rock (Kiowa), Bear's House (Cheyenne, Crow), Bear's Lair (Cheyenne, Crow), Bear's Lodge (Cheyenne, Lakota), Bear's Lodge Butte (Lakota), Bear's Tipi (Arapaho, Cheyenne), Tree Rock (Kiowa), and Grizzly Bear Lodge (Lakota).
Popularized by the famous Hollywood movie, ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’, one can immediately identify this huge and distinctive natural American landmark.
Over 5,000 visitors from all across the world come to the Devils Tower annually to climb the massive monolith.

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