We’re in Belle Fourche, SD now to visit the Devils Tower and Mt. Rushmore. Yesterday we visited the Devils Tower. It’s very impressive! Jutting out of what otherwise is a scene of rolling gentle green hills.
It was formed by a volcano pushing molten lava upwards towards the earth surface approx. 50 millions years go – but it didn’t make it all the way to the surface. Instead it cooled slowly with the top about 1.5 miles underground. Over time the earth around it was eroded through mostly rivers that run through the area, snow and rainmelt etc. so that the lava flow came to the surface. As it’s so much harder than the surrounding rock and earth, it is eroding much, much more slowly.
It is eroding, rainfall on the top seeps into cracks, plants start to grow, snow and ice expand down in the cracks etc. so that periodically the vertical columns will give way and crash down. The last large columnar fall was about 10,000 years ago although small rocks fall periodically.
The native Americans of the area have a story that some children were chased by a huge, supernatural bear and the forest animals told the children to stand on a rock which then started rising into the air. The bear clawed at the rock to get to the children but couldn’t, and that’s what caused the vertical column effect.
The native Americans also called this tower the Bear’s Lodge. A group of soldiers who came to the area asked an interpreter what the name was and he mistakenly said it was “Bad Gods Tower”. The soldiers changed it from Bad Gods to Devils. Some people use “Devil’s” instead of the plural, the name is controversial for almost everyone it seems.
Even today the native Americans consider this sacred ground. They often come to the area to pray and tie cloth or bundles in the trees as prayer bundles. Tourists are asked to not photograph the bundles out of respect, so we have no pictures of these although they were all around.
In addition to hiking trails around the base of the tower, people can climb the tower. It takes experienced rock climbers to make this climb however since it’s pretty much straight up and then straight down! We saw some climbers and took a few pictures, in the gallery below you’ll see that I put orange pointers to the rock climbers so you can see where they are. Brave people!!
Here are pictures we took: