The Rock Clawed by a Giant Bear
On the plains of Wyoming, a vast tower of rock is scored with long grooves from top to bottom. Plains peoples say they're the claw marks of a giant bear.
What was reported
Devils Tower rises about 265 metres above the Belle Fourche River, its sides made of huge columns of rock. Many Plains peoples hold it sacred, and call it by names like Bear Lodge.
A Kiowa story tells of seven girls chased by a giant bear. They climbed onto a low rock and prayed, and the rock rose up into the sky, carrying them out of reach. The bear clawed at its sides, leaving the grooves, and the girls became the stars of the Pleiades.
Explanations offered
Geologists think the tower is magma that cooled underground into columns and was later exposed by erosion. It became the first US national monument in 1906, and appeared in the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Climbers are asked not to climb it in June, out of respect for ceremonies held there.
- When
- Told for centuries
- Where
- Devils Tower, Wyoming, USA
- Witnesses
- Lakota, Kiowa and other Plains peoples
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
More from Wyoming