Devils TowerJul 2, 2009
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view from Visitor Center near the base
other side of the Tower - how many columns are there?
Do you see the 2 climbers?
This large monolith of a rock had been called Grizzly Bear Lodge by the Sioux. Here’s their story of its creation – Seven little girls were chased onto a low rock by grizzly bears. Their prayers for help were answered as the rock started rising to get higher than the bears could reach. The bears clawed at the rock, forming the columns and marks but the rock eventually reached the sky and the girls went up and formed the star formation called Pleiades.
Here’s the Lakota story of how the hills and river were formed and why Indians hunt and kill buffalo – Once the buffalo thought it was the most powerful animal on earth. Humans thought this was unfair. So the humans and animals got together and decided to hold a race to see which was best. Since buffalo had 4 feet and humans only had two, 4 birds were chosen to race for the humans. The race was long and hard. The animals ran so hard that they bled from their noses and mouths, turning the earth red. They pounded the earth so hard that the race course sunk and the earth rose up around it to form the Black Hills. The magpie won for the humans, and that is why humans hunt and kill buffalo.
I walked the paved trail around the Tower and got pictures from different angles and saw 4 climbers halfway up (or down) the rock at about 6 PM!!
