We started the day with a sunrise bike ride. In PJs 🙂
So technically this is Devils Tower National Monument. It was the first national monument established in 1906, by Teddy Roosevelt.
I know I’m above called it Bears Lodge. That is because that is what 20+ Native American tribes called it. Actually they had many different names ranging from Bear’s Tower to Bear Lodge to Bear’s Tipi to Bear’s House, but Bears Lodge is what most have agreed to and they have been trying to change the name ever since it was called devils tower back in the late 1800s. There was legislation back in 2005 to change the name but United States Representative Barbara Cubin, argued that a “name change will harm the tourist trade and bring economic hardship to area communities”. It was not changed. In November 2014, Arvol Looking Horse proposed renaming the geographical feature “Bear Lodge”, and submitted the request to the United States Board on Geographic Names. A second proposal was submitted to request that the U.S. acknowledge what it described as the “offensive” mistake in keeping the current name and to rename the monument and sacred site Bear Lodge National Historic Landmark. The formal public comment period ended in fall 2015. Local state senator Ogden Driskill opposed the change. The name was not changed.
Ugh, I understand that it is normal to demonize people that you are attacking. It makes one feel better about what they are doing. Makes you feel right. Makes you feel justified.
But can we all just agree that Bears Lodge or Bears Tower or Bears Tipi is just a nicer name for a beautiful place? Instead of Devils Tower? Because it really is quite beautiful.
Beyond all the stories behind the Native American culture of how this rock got its name (I’ll post some of them below) the name Devils Tower arguably comes from the fact that we used to call Indians “red devils”. This place was a place of worship for many tribes. It was their “church”. Therefore somebody coined it “devils tower”. And the name stuck. Even to this day.
It is the bear’s claws that creates these vertical lines. Geologically it’s called columnar faulting. It’s extraordinary up close. It’s the largest example of columnar faulting in the world. Some are more than 600 feet tall and are 10 to 20 feet wide. Some are 4, 5, 6, and even 7 sided.
Geologist agree that the tower is a igneous (hardened magma) intrusion. There are 3 versions of how this may have happened.
Anyway it was a really beautiful place. I really remember back when I was in Australia 1998 and I went to Uluru. It was a similarSpiritual feeling walking around the base of this giant rock the sun shining on it. I highly recommend this place for anyone who is in the area.
