Devils Tower, Wyoming; September 9-14, 2015

We had heard about Devils Tower from several folks so took the opportunity to check it out on our way south, since the campgrounds in the Dakota's were closing down for the winter. The drive from Prune Lake down to Devils Tower was even quieter than usual in Wyoming – we went 20 minutes at times without seeing another vehicle! Lots of pronghorns and beautiful country, though.

Our first glimpse of the tower was miles away from the park, but it was eye-catching none-the-less. We played hide-and-seek with it for an hour before we got to the park entrance and once we were at the visitor center, it was almost too large to take in. 

200 million years ago, the landscape was very different. Shallow seas came and went, each depositing large amounts of silt and sand. Over time, this was compressed and hardened into sandstone and siltstone. Fast forward to 50 million years ago when Magma was injected into layers of sedimentary rock, forming the Tower beneath the earth's surface. Millions of years of erosion have stripped away one and one-half miles of the softer rock and sediment to bare the Tower as we see it today. The igneous rock left behind is called phonolite, which is found in Northeast Wyoming and central

Montana, but mostly in east Africa. As you can see in some of the photos, much of the original Tower has broken off and tumbled down around its base.

The symmetrical columns that make up the Devils Tower are the tallest (some more than 600 feet) and widest (ten to twenty feet) in the world. As the magma cooled (remember, it's a mile and a half underground) and solidified, stress points formed throughout. In order to release the pressure, the rock began to crack. These cracks grew outward from each stress point in three directions at 120 angles. The cracks continued to grow outward and downward, eventually intersecting with other cracks to form columns. The cracks tend to make six-sided columns – nature's tightest and strongest fit, although some columns have four, five, and seven sides.

The Tower and Black Hills area have been a gathering place for native people for 10,000 years. The Arapaho, Cheyenne, Crow, Kiowa, Lakota, and Shoshone have developed cultural and spiritual connections with the Tower and they continue to pass on those beliefs today. The Kiowa people tell of eight children – seven sisters and their brother – who were playing in the forest when suddenly the boy was struck dumb, and turned into a bear. He chased his sisters and they ran. When they came to the stump of a giant tree, the tree told them to climb upon the stump. As they did, the stump began to rise, taking the girls beyond the reach of the bear. The bear rose against the tree and scored its bark all around with its claws. The sisters were born into the sky where they became the stars in the constellation Pleiades.

Vast bison herds once wandered the valley near the Tower. As the buffalo were hunted to near extinction, the habitat changed to ranchland. Cowboys drove wild cattle from West Texas and New Mexico into this area where cattle ranching continues to be a primary industry.

Two local ranchers first climbed the Tower in 1893 using a wooden stake ladder, two years later the wife of one of the ranchers made the climb. Over the next 30 years, as many as 200 climbs were made using the wooden ladder. In 1937, a three-man team made the first ascent using modern climbing techniques. In 1941 a man parachuted to the summit just to prove he could hit the impossible. His planning wasn't as good as his parachuting skills, as he was stuck for six days before being rescued by a party of technical rock climbers. The Tower is still a popular destination for rock climbers – there must have been a half-dozen climbing groups each day we were there. Scared me half to death! Many Northern Plains Indian tribes view the area as sacred and oppose climbing on the Tower. Tribal representatives have often compared climbing the Tower to dishonoring a place of worship. There is a voluntary climbing closure in June out of respect for American Indian beliefs, which most but not all climbers observe.

And yes, it should be Devil's rather than Devils, but due to a typo when the proclamation establishing Devils Tower was published, the apostrophe was left out and the clerical error was never officially corrected.

Just outside the campground is The Circle of Sacred Smoke, a sculpture by Japanese artist Junkyu Muto, whose sculptures are in spiritually significant locations throughout the world, including Vatican City.

We took a day trip into Gillette, the nearest town (but still an hour and a half away) and while there, visited the Rockpile Museum and an overlook at the Eagle Butte Mine. The museum was a gem and well worth a few hours and a generous donation. The mine produces low-sulphur coal which is shipped by train to power plants throughout the West, Midwest, and South United States. This is the plant that produces the coal we saw while we were camped at Guernsey back in May of this year.

We had planned on heading over to South Dakota from here, but we've tarried too long in Wyoming and the parks are all closing for the season, so will head south and stay a week in Scotts Bluff, Nebraska, which was near a stopping point on the Oregon Trail.