The Northern Plains in Summertime
summon spectacular lightning storms.
The vast prairie landscapes and underrated scenery
Are exceptional backdrops for lightning photography and video.
In northeastern Wyoming
There's an otherworldly place that oversees this boundless beauty.
Devils Tower...
An igneous monolith rising 1267 feet above its dominion.
Below the towers crown...
peculiar hexagonal columns drape like a scaly exoskeleton.
Below the columns,
a canopy of pine garnishes the alluring thrown.
And below the canopy...
Bone fragments?
Dangle from limbs?
Skulls?
Impaled on fences?
What dark rituals occur in the shadows here to bestow such a sinister name?
Piano music: Rachmaninov's "Prelude in C# Minor"
In my visit to Devils Tower,
There was no dark underworld.
Rather gentle spirits gathering in sunshine.
Wild horses grazing in harmony with the elk on distant bluffs.
Prairie dogs frolicking under your feet.
And a place where getting stuck in rush hour traffic
Is a... Mooooving thing to behold.
Wait...
What's happening?
Why are all the animals suddenly afraid?
Music: "Night on Bald Mountain" performed by Pecos Hank ;D
The volcanic monolith is sacred to dozens of Native American tribes throughout the region.
For perhaps thousands of years,
The Lakota and Cheyenne have called the peak "Bear Lodge. "
The Crow call it "Bear's House" or "Bear's Lair"
And the Arapaho, "Bear's Tipi."
In the Lakota language
"Black bear" is translated to "Wahanksica."
This sounds very similar to "Wakansica"
which translates to "bad god" or "evil spirit."
It seems that in 1876,
A popular book published by Colonel Richard Irving Dodge
mistranslated "black bear" for "bad god."
He labeled the monolith Devils Tower and the blunder stuck.
For some reason there's a controversy over returning Devils Tower
back to a rightful name "Bear Lodge."
Wouldn't it be an honorable gesture
to undo a defiling error
and return the sacred tower to a name given by the first Americans?
And as for the ladies...
They invited me to their house to blow up some cans.
Flute music: by Jungle Jay
Music: "La Malédiction de la Danse du Poulet"