Devils Tower in the northeast corner of Wyoming is a massive chunk of hard igneous rock that rises 867 feet from its base. President Theodore Roosevelt established Devils Tower as America’s first national monument on September 24, 1906. He proclaimed that it was a “natural wonder and object of great scientific interest.” This rock tower is important to many of the northern Plains Indian tribes and is renowned as a premier “crack-climbing” site with over 100 years of climbing history.
Devils Tower-Wyoming
Devils Tower Rock Climber
Many secular theories about how the tower was formed have been put forward over the years. Most include either a volcano or an igneous inclusion as its foundation. All assume millions of years of geologic process. They typically propose 50-65 million years of development where magma was forced up through sedimentary layers which were slowly eroded away to leave the tower. Two similar secular explanations are shown below.
Secular Geologic Explanation for Devils Tower #1
Secular Geologic Explanation #2
When my wife and I visited Devils Tower it seemed clear to me that the rate of erosion of the rock and the amount of talus at its base indicated the millions-of-years idea was deeply flawed. Take a look at the amount and size of the talus in the photos that follow to understand what I mean.
Massive blocks of talus below Devils Tower
Another view of the rocks that have fallen off the tower
Creationist geologist Mike Oard has published a paper that explains the erosion of the tower and sediments at a rate well within the biblical timeline. He believes the tower is likely the conduit of an eroded volcano and points out that the vertical fractures, called joints, should result in rapid erosion from the freeze-thaw mechanism common in the geographical area.*
Mr. Oard also explained in his paper that the existing condition of the rock tower is not consistent with millions of years assuming realistic erosion rates. He developed a schematic to demonstrate this as shown in the figure below. The point of this schematic is that the expected real rate of erosion of the tower would result in a pile of rocks rather than as deposit of talus that we actually see at Devils Tower.
Schematic of Devils Tower erosion with realistic erosion rates over millions of years.
In addition, Oard developed a schematic of the hypothesized Genesis Flood runoff erosion of the sedimentary layers around the tower that is much more in line with reality. To me this explanation makes much more sense of the evidence.
Schematic of Flood runoff erosion of the sedimentary rocks around Devils Tower,
leaving the Tower as an erosional remnant after the Flood.
As with other geologic formations that I have written about in my articles such as Monument Valley in Arizona and Arches National Park in Utah, the rate of erosion at Devils Tower just does not make sense within an assumption of deep time.
It is a disturbing fact that our national parks system usually feels it is necessary to promote nonsensical “indigenous people” stories along with their secular “science” whenever they interpret American geology. At Devils Tower Indian stories are given much space on park signs and literature. In these Indian stories the vertical columns of Devils Tower are explained as the result of a large bear scratching the tower sides with its claws as it was trying to get up to some children on top or the tower.
Indian legend for Devils Tower
Another Indian Legend for Devils Tower
But we can always be sure that any scientific hypothesis built upon God’s Word and the reality of the Genesis Flood will never see the light of day at an American national park or monument.
*Journal of Creation 23(2):124-127, August 2009.
J.D. Mitchell
