Devils Tower

The words

1. Bear Lodge

   Bear Lodge reflects bear-related Indigenous names for the Tower. The Park Service describes federal efforts to sever tribal connections to the Black Hills; living communities retain sacred ties to this place.

   Park Service: Tribal ties to the Tower (opens a new tab)

2. Belle Fourche

   The Belle Fourche River helped expose the Tower by carrying away surrounding sedimentary rock. Its riverbank habitats support a different community of wildlife from the monument’s rocky slopes and forests.

   Did you know?

   In 1937, the Park Service straightened a short section of the river to protect a bridge from recurring spring floods.

   Park Service: The river shaping the Tower (opens a new tab)

3. Claw Marks

   In the Crow sacred account recorded from Ride-The-White-Hip-Horse, a rock rises to protect two girls from a bear. The bear scratches its sides while trying to reach them.

   Park Service: Tribal sacred narratives (opens a new tab)

4. Devils Tower

   Devils Tower rises above northeastern Wyoming’s prairie, with igneous columns surrounded by sedimentary hills. The Park Service traces its English name to an 1875 military expedition, while acknowledging uncertainty about its origin.

   Park Service: The Tower’s disputed name (opens a new tab) · Park Service: How the Tower formed (opens a new tab)

5. George Hopkins

   Hopkins parachuted onto the Tower in October 1941 as a publicity stunt. A rope dropped for his descent landed out of reach, leaving him stranded while rescuers organized a climb.

   Park Service: The 1941 summit rescue (opens a new tab)

6. Jack Durrance

   On October 6, 1941, Durrance led seven other climbers to the summit to rescue George Hopkins. Their descent ended the parachutist’s six-day ordeal on the Tower.

   Park Service: The 1941 summit rescue (opens a new tab)

7. Mato Tipila

   In the Lakota account told by Short Bull in 1932, a worshipper finds himself on the summit and returns to its base after prayer, recognizing the rock as a bear’s lodge.

   Park Service: Tribal sacred narratives (opens a new tab)

8. Phonolite

   An uncommon igneous rock; the Tower’s variety is phonolite porphyry.

   The Tower’s columns formed as molten rock cooled, contracted and cracked. Geologists agree on its igneous origin, but differ over the sequence of events that shaped it before erosion exposed the rock.

   Did you know?

   Not every column has six sides: many are five-sided, and the Tower’s unusually large columns have irregular shapes.

   Park Service: How the Tower formed (opens a new tab)

9. Prairie Dog

   Black-tailed prairie dogs live in the monument’s grasslands, digging burrows and clipping vegetation. Their tunnels shelter other animals, while the prairie dogs themselves provide food for many predators.

   Did you know?

   A town’s burrows do not all connect underground. The Park Service compares family groups to neighborhoods, with separate burrows like houses.

   Park Service: Prairie dog ecology (opens a new tab)

10. Prairie Falcon

    Prairie falcons nest on exposed rock, and the Tower offers ledges for their eyries. The Park Service monitors nesting activity because disturbance near nests can harm chicks or cause abandonment.

    Park Service: Nesting falcons (opens a new tab)

11. Prayer Cloths

    Prayer cloths and bundles express personal spiritual connections to the Tower. They may accompany an offering, request or remembrance; the Park Service emphasizes their private religious meaning and asks visitors to leave them undisturbed.

    Park Service: A place of reverence (opens a new tab)

12. Seven Sisters

    In the Kiowa account told by I-See-Many-Camp-Fire-Places in 1897, seven girls escape pursuing bears as a rock lifts them into the sky, where they become the Pleiades.

    Park Service: Tribal sacred narratives (opens a new tab)

13. Stake Ladder

    Willard Ripley and Bill Rogers built a wooden stake ladder in a crack in 1893. It reached the Meadows below the summit, supporting the Tower’s earliest recorded climbs.

    Did you know?

    In 1972, the Park Service removed the ladder’s lower remains and restored its upper 140 feet (43 m).

    Park Service: The 1893 stake ladder (opens a new tab)

14. Sun Dance

    The Park Service describes the Lakota Sun Dance as a ceremony of fasting and sacrifice for individual and communal renewal. Its records document ceremonies at the Tower from 1983.

    Park Service: A place of reverence (opens a new tab)

15. Tower Trail

    Tower Trail circles the formation beside its boulder field, providing close views of the columns. Interpretive waysides explain the monument’s natural and cultural history along the paved route.

    Park Service: Tower Trail landscapes (opens a new tab)