Rising 857 feet out of the floor of the plains in southeastern Wyoming is a 1000 foot diameter, black, cylindrical fluted rock with a slightly rounded 1.5 acre cap at its peak. How did Devils Tower, this unearthly object, come to be here?
50 million years ago molten magma, from deep within the earth, forced its way into the sedimentary rocks above and then cooled underground. As the magma cooled, it contracted and the rock fractured along its stress lines into multiple, perfect vertical hexagonal shapes -- 120 angles at each corner, one of the strongest geometric forms in nature. Over the millions of years since the magma intrusion and cooling, the two miles of sedimentary rock above the now-cooled granite form was worn away by erosion -- leaving this magnificent and mysterious rock protruding from the earth.
The several Indian nations of the region regarded this rock formation as a sacred site -- putting their ancestors and wildlife at the center of legends to explain its presence. The first American explorers to see the tower thought it was a core remaining from an ancient volcano. Later, geologists determined its true origin – as a magma intrusion into sandstone.
Stephen Spielberg recognized the otherworldly character of Devils Tower and made it a prime feature of his award winning film, Close Encounters of a Third Kind.
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