Up in the state´s northeast, rising 867 feet from base to summit, this butte was the first U.S. National Monument, established under Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 and ceovering 1,347 acres. Devils Tower became especially popular after its use as a plot device and backdrop in the 1977 movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind; it´s a mecca for rock climbers; and it´s sacred to a number of First Nations tribes, including the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Kiowa (who hold that climbing the butte desecrates it, and most climbers agree to stay away during the month of June, when tribal ceremonies are held here).


U.S. Department of the Interior