The Tower Of The Devil

The mysterious Tower of the Devil, known as Devils Tower, is located in northeastern Wyoming in the United States. Brought to international attention by the hugely popular movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Devils Tower has been a sacred place of numerous Indian tribes since prehistoric times. Various legends are told about the origin of the tower. Its height is over 1,266 ft., which is comparable with the height of the Empire State Building, which is about 1,250 ft. without the spire. The rock formed about 65 million years ago by volcanic activity, and is unusually shaped in the form of woman’s hips which was the result of erosion of the surrounding soft rock around a strong internal structure. It was first climbed, using a long wooden ladder attached to the rock face, on July 4th, 1893. Proclaimed the first US National Park by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, the tower is today a popular climbing site and over 20,000 ascents have been made. Jutting magnificently out of the relatively flat surrounding terrain, the tower was a greatly honored vision quest site of the Indians. Its use in this regard has continued to the present time, for both Indians and non-Indians, and many visitors have reported seeing strange light phenomena and UFO's flying about the tower's summit.