The Mystery of Devils Tower
The 1977 movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind used a certain location for some of its more climactic scenes. As a result, the visitors to this place increased, doubled that year in fact. Park Service statistics show that 2021 had the highest number of visitors to date in the monument’s 116-year history with 550,712 people driving through the park’s entry gate in 2021.
Devils Tower is in northeastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River and is, what some call, a “natural phenomena”.
It rises 1,267 feet above the Belle Fourche River, standing 867 feet from summit to base. The summit is 5,112 feet above sea level. It is the only rock as far as the eye can see that looks anything like this. Why is it here? How did it get here?
The name "Devil's Tower" originated in 1875 during an expedition led by Colonel Richard Irving Dodge, when his interpreter reportedly misinterpreted a native name to mean "Bad God's Tower".
Today, hundreds of climbers scale the sheer rock walls of Devils Tower each summer, but back in 1941, a man became desperately stranded on top.
George Hopkins parachuted onto Devils Tower, without permission, as a publicity stunt resulting from a bet. He had intended to descend by a 1,000-foot rope dropped to him after successfully landing on the butte, but the package containing the rope, a sledgehammer and a car axle to be driven into the rock as an anchor point, slid over the edge.
As the weather deteriorated, a second attempt was made to drop equipment, but Hopkins deemed it unusable after the rope became snarled and frozen due to the rain and wind. Hopkins was stranded for six days, exposed to cold, rain and 50 mph winds before a mountain rescue team led by Jack Durrance, who had successfully climbed Devils Tower in 1938, finally reached him and brought him down. (Source: wikiepedia.com)
Devils Tower was the very first National Monument in the United States. President Teddy Roosevelt declared it as such in 1906. Some other interesting facts include, from its base, Devils Tower is more than four football fields tall. The tower is made up of mostly hexagonal columns, but some have as few as four or as many as seven sides. And the top of the tower was first reached by two local cowboys who constructed a wooden ladder system and attached it to the side of the tower. Remnants of the wooden ladder can still be seen on the side of the formation. (source: blackhillsbadlands.com)
The tower is unique because of its size and the type of rock, phonolite. The columns that make up Devils Tower are some of the tallest and widest found in these types of formations. The circumference of the base of the tower is 1 mile.
It really is incredible. When I see pictures of it, it looks like a giant petrified tree stump. I like to let my imagination wander…could trees at creation be that big? And, wouldn’t that be cool? Anyway…
Some scientists have called it baffling and remarkable. You can drive across the sedimentary plains, see nothing but flat ground for miles and miles, and then this tall, dark tower emerges as you drive toward it. There is nothing like it in the surrounding area!
David Whitehead is an investigative journalist and talk show host, and his comment caused me to answer, out loud. He said, “there are many theories about it, but there’s no agreement on what it was that produced this miracle of nature.”
Hello?
“It’s made of volcanic-type materials, but there’s no other volcanic activity around it.” He went on to ask, “What caused this thing? We don’t know the answer to that question. It’s a really interesting conundrum.”… “we are going to find things as we observe and study the earth that we had no idea how they got there, what type of physical process created them…” - Travis Taylor, Aerospace Engineer
Yes?
“As much as we like to walk around with the confidence that we know this planet and we understand the planet we live on, there seems to be nothing but mystery on this planet. We don’t understand how to predict earthquakes. We don’t understand how lightning travels. There’s so many questions that he have about what produces the forces of nature. We like to walk around with the confidence that we know everything about planet Earth; that we understand what's happening. But there seems to be nothing but mystery on this planet.” – David Whitehead
So many questions about what produces the forces of nature, and yet the scientific world wants to tell us how old the universe is. They cannot even tell us the cause of cancer or how to stop the common cold, but they want to date our world? That makes no sense to me.
I felt like I was the privileged watcher. Like I had been let in on some huge secret. All these questions and I had the answer.
Matter and antimatter. Gravity. These are all things that science cannot explain.
Plate tectonics. Think this one’s pretty easy? We all thought that continents kind of drifted in the ocean, occasionally crashing into one another and creating mountains. And while that’s pretty accurate, scientists still don’t know what made those tectonic plates move in the first place.” (Source: newslifetime.com)
The flood perhaps?
“For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits. Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark. The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.” Genesis 7:17-24 NIV
Who built the Great Serpent Mound?
Why do we sleep?
Where are repeating radio bursts from space coming from?
Why do cats purr?
Why do we yawn?
What is the underwater stone highway in the Bahamas?
Where do cosmic rays come from?
Who were the sea people?
Who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?
Are there more hidden chambers in the pyramids?
Why is ice slippery?
What’s at the bottom of the ocean?
What are the Nazca Lines?
What was the Antikythera Mechanism used for?
Where is Cleopatra’s tomb?
What are the Costa Rica gigantic stone spheres?
These are all unanswered questions that I found on the internet and yet, and yet, science wants to date our earth. You know why this is significant, right? Because without creation, we have no Creator.
Science wants to teach our children evolution; that we are millions and millions of years old; that we descended from apes (why do we still have apes?) The world wants ooze and slime instead of giving our loving Creator the credit and worship and honor that is due Him.
“…The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.
He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap (or in a vessel);
He lays up the deep in storehouses.
Let all the earth fear the Lord;
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
For He spoke, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast.” Psalm 33:5-9 NKJV
Jesus spoke and it was done. Let all the world stand in awe of Him.
by Jeanette Stark - Monday, October 24, 2022