You may have seen Devil's Tower in the 1970s movie, Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind? Or maybe on the three cent American commemorative stamp that came out in 1953? It's the first American National Monument and was created by president Theodore Roosevelt in 1906.
The tower goes more or less straight up for 1,267 feet. The first shot in this series shows a very tiny climber going straight up the rock face.
The tower is closed to climbers for the month of June by Presidential executive order to show respect for the 22 different Indian tribes who use the tower as part of their spiritual practices. On July 4th, 1893, William Rogers and Willard Ripley made the first known ascent with the aid of a 350 foot ladder. In 1895 Mrs Rogers used the ladder and became the first woman to reach the summit.
The strange part of the day is not the Tower, it is the minds and motivations of the small creatures driven to climb to the top.
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