Did you ever see “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”? It was filmed right here at Devil’s Tower. We debated whether it was worth a journey this far off the beaten path, but boy it really was!
Devils Tower is 867 feet from its base to the summit. It is an igneous intrusion. That means Magma welled up into the surrounding sedimentary rock. There it cooled and hardened. The sedimentary rock has since eroded away to show this majestic tower.
While preparing to travel west, we spent a lot of time studying the Native American Indians who were here long before we settled in America. Our family formed our own personal opinions about what happened during that time, and this natural wonder sparked a great deal of conversation on the topic. You see, this is considered sacred ground to the Indians. “Devils Tower”, it is believed, was a name given when an interpreter wrongly translated the name into English. The Indian term probably literally meant “God’s Tower”, but it was translated as “Gods Bad Tower” or “Devils Tower”. Knowing this land and structure was of such great importance to the original inhabitants of the area, we turned it into a tourist attraction and even allow to this day climbers to scale the massive structure. This is seen as a desecration of a holy place to the Native Americans.
