Where Is Devils Tower?

Devils Tower is a striking igneous intrusion (laccolith) composed of phonolite porphyry, formed from magma that cooled underground about 50 million years ago. As the magma slowly cooled, it contracted and fractured into remarkable hexagonal columns — some of the most impressive columnar jointing on Earth. The surrounding softer sedimentary rock eroded over millions of years, exposing the harder igneous core as a butte standing 265 metres above the surrounding terrain (386 metres above the river). The tower is sacred to over 20 Native American tribes, including the Lakota, who call it "Bear Lodge" (Mato Tipila) — their creation stories tell of children saved from a giant bear by the rock rising from the ground, the bear claws leaving the column grooves. The tower gained pop-culture fame as the alien landing site in Steven Spielberg 1977 film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."