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| Devil's Tower National Monument is located in Northeastern Wyoming. The tower and the surrounding 1347 acres were designated as our first national monument by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1906. The tower is known to Native Americans as Mato Tipi - the Bear's Lodge - and it is a sacred site of great power to the Lakota, Tsististas, and other tribes of the plains. |
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| There are several different versions of the Native American legend of Devil's Tower. One story tells of seven Indian children who were playing in the woods when a great bear came upon them. The children prayed to mother earth who lifted the children up out of the the bear's reach. The striations on the side of the tower are the bear's claw marks as she tried to reach the children. |
| Geologists believe that the tower is the cooled core of a volcano, exposed after millions of years of erosion caused by weather and the Belle Fourche river. Large slabs of rock still fall from the sides of the tower. |
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| Prarie dogs are protected at Devil's Tower. Most days you can see dozens of them popping their heads up from their maze of burrows. |
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