Devils Tower National Monument

See also: National Parks and Monuments (table)

Devils Tower National Monument,

1,347 acres (546 hectares), overlooking the Belle Fourche River, NE Wyo.; it was the first designated U.S. national monument (1906). Devils Tower, 865 ft (264 m) high and narrowing in width from 1,000 ft (305 m) at its base to 250 ft (76 m) at its summit, is a cluster of rock columns formed by the cooling and crystallization of molten matter. Geologists assume it to be a remnant of an ancient lava intrusion into sedimentary strata which were later removed by wind and water action, leaving the more resistant "tower" to dominate the skyline. Sacred to many Lakota, Cheyenne, and members of other Plains tribes, who call it Bear Lodge, it is also a popular rock-climbing and tourist site, which has caused some controversy. See National Parks and Monuments, table.

Devils Tower National Monument

Parks Directory of the United States / US National Parks / National Monuments

Address:Hwy 110 Bldg 170
Devils Tower, WY 82714
Phone:307-467-5283
Fax:307-467-5350
Web: www.nps.gov/deto/
Size: 1,347 acres.
Established: Proclaimed on September 24, 1906.
Location:Entrance is 33 miles northeast of Moorcroft, Wyoming; 27 miles northwest of Sundance, Wyoming, via US 14; and 52 miles southwest of Belle Fourche, South Dakota, via SD 34/WY 24.
Facilities:Campground (é), picnic area, rest rooms (é), visitor center, museum/exhibit, self-guided tour/trail. Entrance fee required.
Activities:Camping, hiking, rock climbing.
Special Features:Devils Tower, the nation's first national monument, is a nearly vertical monolith of igneous rock that rises 1,267 feet above the meandering Belle Fourche River. Known by several northern plains tribes as "Bear Lodge," it is a sacred site of worship for many American Indians. It was also used as a filming site in the 1977 movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

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See other parks in Wyoming.