The story
On September 24, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt used the new Antiquities Act to proclaim Devils Tower the first national monument in the United States. Long before that, the formation held deep spiritual significance for more than 20 Plains tribes, who know it by names including Mató Thípila (Bear Lodge). On July 4, 1893, ranchers William Rogers and Willard Ripley made the first recorded ascent using a 350-foot ladder of oak stakes driven into a crack; two years later Rogers' wife Linnie became the first woman to climb it. Its fame exploded when "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977) made it the alien-contact site.
Everything that was here
- 1906–present · still open
Devils Tower National MonumentNational Monument
America's very first national monument was a 1,267-foot volcanic column that two Wyoming ranchers first climbed in 1893 using a homemade wooden ladder — and that Steven Spielberg later turned into the most famous mountain in science fiction.
See the map in 1907 →
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Connected places
St. Louis Coliseum
Hyperion Theater
Temple of Music (Pan-American Exposition)
Hotel Schenley (William Pitt Union)
Black Cat Cafe
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Nearby history
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