Something Is Deeply Wrong With Wyoming's Devils Tower (20 Tribes Have Proof)

For more than a century, millions of people have looked at the strange stone tower rising from the Wyoming plains and called it Devils Tower. But what if that name was never supposed to exist?

https://youtu.be/dgv19QyKSeM

This documentary goes deep into the mystery surrounding one of America’s most recognizable landmarks—and the story gets far more complicated than a simple name change. The tower’s geology is still debated. Scientists have proposed that it could be a volcanic plug, a laccolith, a stock, or even a lava coulée, while the erosion that exposed the formation may have destroyed the very evidence needed to settle the question. Even its age carries an unusual contradiction, with different scientific studies producing estimates of roughly 40.5 million and 49 million years. But the deepest mystery isn't geological. Long before American maps gave it the name Devils Tower, Native nations knew this place through names connected to the bear. The enormous vertical grooves carved into the rock even became part of ancient stories about a giant bear clawing at the stone. Then, in 1875, an expedition led by Colonel Richard Irving Dodge recorded a Native name that was rendered as “Bad God's Tower”—a translation that eventually became Devils Tower. And the name is still being fought over today. A formal petition to restore Bear Lodge, a federal committee recommendation, and repeated congressional efforts to preserve the existing name have left the issue unresolved. At the same time, another conflict plays out every June, when climbing, tourism, and Native spiritual practices meet on the same 867 feet of rock. There are no easy answers here—only a rock that keeps revealing new questions. And maybe that's what makes Devils Tower so fascinating. The stone hasn't changed. Our understanding of it—and the arguments surrounding it—keep changing. 📚 SOURCES & FURTHER READING ◆National Park Service — About the Name https://www.nps.gov/deto/learn/historyculture/aboutthename.htm ◆National Park Service — The Genesis of a Name https://www.nps.gov/articles/devils-tower-name-genesis.htm ◆National Park Service — Proposals to Change the Name https://home.nps.gov/deto/learn/historyculture/devils-tower-proposals-to-change-the-name.htm ◆National Park Service — First Explorers / Origin of the Name https://www.nps.gov/deto/learn/historyculture/early-exploration.htm ◆National Park Service — Climbing Information & June Voluntary Closure https://home.nps.gov/deto/planyourvisit/climbing.htm ◆National Park Service — Current Climbing Closures https://www.nps.gov/deto/planyourvisit/currentclimbingclosures.htm Keywords for this video : Devils Tower mystery, Devils Tower Wyoming, Devils Tower real name, Bear Lodge, Devils Tower history, Devils Tower name controversy, Native American history Devils Tower, Devils Tower geology, Devils Tower formation, Devils Tower age, Devils Tower Native American legend, Devils Tower climbing controversy #DevilsTower #BearLodge #Wyoming #NativeAmericanHistory #HiddenHistory #Geology BS221AR