Devils Tower rises 867 feet from the river valley, a shell of close-fitting hexagonal columns that made it the first site proclaimed under the Antiquities Act, by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. The government name stuck, but it came late: the Lakota know the Tower as Bear Lodge and place the origin of the White Buffalo Calf Pipe, their most sacred object, in a cave on its north side, and more than two dozen tribes hold ties to the rock. Its climbing history is famous too, from the 1893 stake ladder of two local ranchers to the first free climb four decades later, and a beloved science-fiction film fixed the silhouette in the popular imagination.

The Park Service manages the Tower with an unusual arrangement: climbing is legal and popular, but June is a voluntary closure for all visitors above the loop trail, written into the Climbing Management Plan with two climber groups and two Native American organizations, and framed by the Park Service as a matter of respect rather than regulation. Ceremonies happen year-round and are often private and invisible; prayer cloths hang from trees around the base and belong where they are. The practical reading of the place is that the rock's meaning to the nations who pray there does not switch off when no one is watching.

Visiting

The National Park Service's Devils Tower site carries fees ($25 per vehicle), hours, and the current climbing closure details; open year-round with seasonal road variations.

Photo: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Devil%27s_Tower_National_Monument_2025_-_1.jpg), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Associated traditions & practices

Native American Traditions Vision Quest Sweat Lodge Ceremony Sacred Site Pilgrimage