Devils Tower National Monument: A History

by Ray H. Mattison

In the Devils Tower vicinity, this slowly upsurging, heated earth substance spent its force before reaching the surface, cooling and becoming solid within the upper layers of the earth. During this process probably a very large mass of it, many miles across, moved within a few thousand feet of the surface. Before it cooled, fingers or branches of pasty-textured material moved upward along lines of weakness in the rock layers near the surface of the earth. Some of these pinched out, while others formed local masses of varying size and shape. Devils Tower and the nearby Missouri Buttes, as we know them today, represent some of these offshoot bodies which solidified in approximately their present size and form at depths of possibly one to two thousand feet beneath the surface. The phonolite porphyry, as the rock of Devils Tower and the Missouri Buttes is known, is very hard.

The rock formation of Devils Tower is Phonolite Porphyry. Courtesy National Park Service.

During subsequent tens of millions of years, erosion has stripped away the softer rock layers in which these masses formed, leaving them standing as dominant landmarks. The process continues today as the Belle Fourche and Little Missouri Rivers and their tributary streams, aided by freezing, thawing, rain drops, and the other processes that break down the rock, continue to alter the face of the earth in this region.

Within less than a decade after the U. S. Geological Survey party passed through the region, the first settlers were to enter the western end of the Black Hills in which the Tower is located. The Treaty of 1868 guaranteed this region to the Indians. In 1874, in violation of this treaty, Gen. George A. Custer led a reconnaissance expedition into the Black Hills. As the result of his reports of the discovery of gold in paying quantities in the Hills, miners invaded the region. While the Government attempted to negotiate with the Indians to purchase the Hills, the Army endeavored to keep out the intruders. When the negotiations broke down in 1875, the troops were withdrawn and miners and settlers poured into the region. Towns such as Custer City and Deadwood sprung up over night. Many of the Indians, as a result, became convinced that they would lose their reservations in the Dakotas, Wyoming and Montana and joined the hostiles. By early 1876 the Government found a full-scale Indian war on its hands. Following the battle of the Little Bighorn in June, the Army pursued the hostile groups relentlessly. In the fall of that year the Indians were compelled to cede the Black Hills and most of their lands in Wyoming to the whites. For several years, however, small marauding groups continued to wander through the region.

By the end of the decade, the vicinity around Devils Tower was comparatively safe for settlers. In the early 1880’s the first of these came into the Belle Fourche Valley in the vicinity of Hulett. With the exception of such outfits as the Camp Stool and the D (Driscoll), most of these settlers were small-scale farmers and ranchers from the mid-western states. In the vicinity of Moorcroft and the Tower, on the other hand, most of the land was occupied by large-scale outfits, such as the 101. From 1889 to 1892, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad extended its line from the South Dakota State Line through Newcastle, Moorcroft and thence to Sheridan. From several points along this line, the Tower may be seen in the distance. It is not unreasonable to conjecture, therefore, that the railroad may have had some influence in the movement to give the area national protection.

Fortunately, the Government took early action to prevent the Tower from passing into the hands of individuals who might wish to exploit the scenic wonder for private gain. In February 1890, Charles Graham filed a preemption application for the lands on which the Tower is situated. In August of the same year, the General Land Office issued an order to reject all applications on these lands. This order forestalled other attempts to acquire the Tower for speculative purposes.

Meanwhile, support grew for the idea of preserving the Tower as a national or state park. In February 1892, Senator Francis E. Warren (1884-1929) of Wyoming wrote the Commissioner of the General Land Office asking him for assistance in preventing the spoilation of Devils Tower and the Little Missouri Buttes, located several miles to the northeast. Several weeks later, the Land Office issued an order setting aside, under the Forest Reserve Act of March 3, 1891, some 60.5 square miles, which included both the Tower and the Little Missouri Buttes, as a temporary forest reserve. This reserve was reduced in June 1892 to 18.75 square miles and the unreserved portion in 1898 was restored to settlement.

In the same year, Senator Warren introduced a bill (S. 3364) in the United States Senate for the establishment of “Devils Tower National Park.” Acting on the advice of the General Land Office, the Senator requested in his proposal that 18.75 square miles or 11,974.24 acres, which included both Devils Tower and the Little Missouri Buttes, be set aside for the park. The bill, which was introduced on July 1, 1892, was read twice by its title and referred to the Committee on Territories. It appears that Congress took no further action on the proposal.

It was not until fourteen years later that Devils Tower became a national monument. Although the proposal to make the area a national park apparently did not receive much public support, the proponents were sufficiently influential to keep it in timber reserve status. Following the passage of the Antiquities Act in June 1906, Frank W. Mondell (1860-1939), Representative-at-large from Wyoming and resident of Newcastle, lent his support to the plan to have the area preserved as a national monument. Mondell was a member and later chairman of the important House Committee on Public Lands. It was apparently as the result of his influence, more than that of any other individual, that President Theodore Roosevelt, on September 24, 1906, proclaimed Devils Tower as a national monument. Upon the recommendation of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, the acreage set aside was only 1,152.91 acres, believed by him to be “sufficiently large to provide for the proper care and management of the monument” under the terms of the Antiquities Act. The Little Missouri Buttes were not included in the monument area. The remainder of the reserve was opened to settlement in 1908.