As it contracted, the minerals crystalized to form a solid mass of hexagonal columns, in somewhat the same way that drying mud forms a series of little hexagons. There is still some controversy over whether this dome stayed underground to become an intrusion or if it reached the surface to become a volcano (the current majority opinion seems to be that the flat top of the mass indicates that it remained subsurface, and that it encountered a layer of resistant rock above that forced the magma to spread out into a flat shape). In either case, the magma dome cooled over time, and formed a volcanic rock known as phonolite. Sometime later, perhaps 40 million years ago, another magma plume intruded into the rock layers. At some point, molten magma from the Earth’s mantle pushed up close to the surface here, leaving a dome of cooled magma which produced three prominent hills that we know now as the Little Missouri Buttes. It is known that around 50-60 million years ago, during the Paleocene and Eocene, this area was geologically active, with the Rocky Mountains and the Black Hills being formed. There is still some scientific dispute about exactly how Devils Tower was formed. It remains a sacred site for the Native American Nations which inhabit this area. Today, we know the stars as the Pleiades, and the immense scoured rock is still visible today as Bear Lodge Butte. To protect the little girls, the rock began to grow upwards towards the heavens, and eventually the girls reached the sky, becoming a group of seven stars in the sky. The giant Grizzly Bear continued to attack, raking the rock with its claws and scouring it with long deep scratches. As the sisters ran in terror, they came to a giant rock and climbed to the top. One day as they were playing, however, the brother was transformed into an enormous Grizzly Bear and attacked the seven sisters. I’m just making a quick stop in Wyoming, mostly to break up the drive from Bismarck to Denver, and to visit Devils Tower. I’ve actually been here before, waayyyy back in 1972 when I was just a kid and we lived in Rapid City for a time.įor those who don't know, I live in a converted campervan and travel around the country, posting photo diaries of places that I visit.Īccording to the legends of the Lakota and Kiowa, there were once eight siblings who lived in the area around the Belle Fourche River in Wyoming.
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