If you ever seen the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind then you’ve seen the Devils Tower (or Devil’s Tower). It’s impossible not to recognize it.
It became famous when Richard Dreyfuss began having visions of the Devils Tower with its flat top and ridged sides. Soon after having the visions he constructs a crew sculpture in his mashed potatoes. Needless to say his family is alarmed. He becomes more and more obsessed with the mountain. He paints it and then really goes nuts. When he brings in piles of dirt from the yard to create a scale replica in his living room, his wife and kids leave him. It’s a well known scene.
Eventually Richard’s character travels to Wyoming to see the real Devils Tower. Despite warnings from the military to stay away, he sneaks up to the mountain. There he sees an amazing spectacle. Aliens land after communicating with humans using a giant organ. Many people, abducted long ago, come off the ship. Richard’s character is amongst those who choose to travel with the aliens back to their home planet. Given the way Hollywood makes sequels, it’s surprising this open ending didn’t spawn a second movie. It still might. There are extra scenes in some versions that show the interior of the vessel. But these weren’t very well done.
Back to the real Devils Tower. It’s located in Wyoming. It’s a monolithic igneous intrusion, otherwise known as a volcanic neck. This is also known as a lava neck. It’s a result of magma flowing out of a volcano’s vent. It’s generally the sign of an active volcano. Some geologists dispute that Devils Tower is such a formation.
The Indians have a legend about how Devils Tower Wyoming was formed. Some bears stumbled on three Indian girls who were picking flowers. The bears chased them. The Great Spirit helped the girls by raising up the land upon which they stood. But the bears were persistent. They tried to climb up to the girls but as they neared the top slid back down. Their claws left the indentations in the side of the structure.
Another legend, this one told by the Sioux Indians, was of two boys wandering far from their village. A giant bear called Mato came upon them. It wanted to rip them apart with its claws so it could eat them. The boys prayed to the creator to help them. He did, raising the ground beneath them. Mato, like the bears in the other story, kept trying and failing to climb. The marks from its great claws can still be seen.
The Devils Tower is as interesting as the stories that surround it.
