In recent years, about 1% of the Monument's 400,000 annual visitors climbed Devils Tower, mostly using traditional climbing techniques.
It rises dramatically 1,267 feet (386 m) above the Belle Fourche River, standing 867 feet (265 m) from summit to base. The summit is 5,112 feet (1,559 m) above sea level.
The name Devils Tower originated in 1875 during an expedition led by Colonel Richard Irving Dodge, when his interpreter reportedly misinterpreted a native name to mean "Bad God's Tower".
Native American names for the monolith include: "Bear's House" or "Bear's Lodge" (or "Bear's Tipi", "Home of the Bear", "Bear's Lair"; Cheyenne, Lakota Matȟó Thípila, Crow Daxpitcheeaasáao "Home of Bears"), "Aloft on a Rock" (Kiowa), "Tree Rock", "Great Gray Horn", and "Brown Buffalo Horn" (Lakota Ptehé Ǧí).
The bear theme comes from a common story about Devils Tower.
Here is one version:
According to the Native American tribes of the Kiowa and Lakota, a group of girls went out to play and were spotted by several giant bears who began to chase them. In an effort to escape the bears, the girls climbed to the top of a rock, fell to their knees, and prayed to the Great Spirit to save them. Hearing their prayers, the Great Spirit made the rock rise from the ground towards the heavens so that the bears could not reach the girls. The bears, in an effort to climb the rock, left deep claw marks in the sides, which had become too steep to climb. (Those are the marks which appear today on the sides of Devils Tower.) When the girls reached the sky, they were turned into the stars of the Pleiades.
Listen to these children present another version of the legend. I suggest that you put on headphones to hear the children better. --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcHG1pjnt0w
My best,
Jane
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-- lair = the resting or living place of a wild animal-- aloft = at a great height
-- were spotted = were seen
-- reach = atteindre
-- steep = escarpé
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