Devils Tower and The Stories – A Simple Guide
If you ever seen the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind then you’ve seen the Devils Tower (or Devil’s Tower). This distinctive mountain landmark is hard to miss.
It became famous when Richard Dreyfuss began having visions of the Devils Tower with its flat top and ridged sides. He forms his mashed potatoes into something that looks like it. Needless to say his family is alarmed. Soon the obsession consumes him. First he makes paintings of it, then he goes off the deep end. 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 very famous scene in the movie.
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 decides to enter the ship to learn from the aliens. Given the way Hollywood makes sequels, it’s surprising this open ending didn’t spawn a second movie. It still might. Extended scenes have been shown in some releases. 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. Another name for it is a lava neck. It forms when magma flows out of a volcanic 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 Indian sisters were walking in the wilderness, picking flowers, when they came upon some bears. The girls ran. The Great Spirit saved the girls by raising the land where they stood. The bears kept trying. Every time they made it nearly to the top, they slid back to the bottom. Their claws left the indentations in the side of the structure.
A Sioux legend involves two boys far from home. A great bear named Mato found them. It had claws the size of tepees, and it wanted to eat the boys for breakfast. The boys prayed to the creator to help them. He did, raising the ground beneath them. Just as with the stories involving the girls, and this one the giant bear tried to get at them from all sides but could not. The mountain is now scored by it’s tremendous claws.
Whether fantastic tales of giant bears or friendly aliens the Devils Tower is a great place to visit.
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