Yellowstone Park, Devil’s Monument
The oldest, biggest, and most famous national park in the United States. Located primarily in Wyoming and established in 1872, it covers some 2,220,000 acres and is visited by more than two million persons yearly. Rugged mountains, deep canyons, thundering waterfalls, sparkling lakes, evergreen forests, and lush meadows—a magnificent setting for the bear, elk, and bison that roam its precincts and for the eagles, swans, and pelicans that raise their families there.
Yellowstone gains much of its fame from the thousands of hot springs and hundreds of geysers—foremost among them Old Faithful, shown here. It used to erupt on an average every 65 minutes, but in recent years it has not been quite so faithful.
DEVIL’S TOWER, First National Monument
Wyoming was also first with a national monument. Looking like a huge, petrified tree stump, Devil’s Tower was declared to be such in 1906. Said to be of volcanic origin, it thrusts its bulk 865 feet into the sky. Geologists say it is the remnant of a volcanic intrusion. As time passed, it was eroded into its present form.
Indian legend says seven little Indian girls were chased by bears and sought refuge on a low rock, and to save them, the gods raised the rock high up into the sky. The girls, the legend says, are still visible as seven stars, the Pleiades. The enraged bears clawed the sides in a vain effort to reach them—the claw marks still being visible as the fluting on the sides of the tower.
That is the legend. But one thing is certain: Behind the magnificence of the first national park and the first national monument is their Creator, the living God Jehovah: “He is firmly establishing the mountains with his power.”—Psalm 65:6.