Today in History: Teddy Roosevelt declares Devil's Tower the first national monument, 1906 (United States)

The Antiquities Act

The Antiquities Act was passed by Congress in 1906, with President Theodore Roosevelt signing it into law in June 1906. The act dictates the procedure for the establishing of national monuments. According to provisions of the Act, the choice of the site to be designated as a National Monument lies under the exclusive discretion of the US President. The then US President Theodore Roosevelt would use the powers vested in the presidency by the Antique Act to designate the first National Monument in US history, the Devils Tower in 1906.

Devils Tower

The first National Monument in the US was the Bear Lodge Butte, also known as the Devils Tower, which is an immense Butte situated in Crook County, Wyoming. The geological feature stands 5,112 feet above seas level and rises a mind-boggling 1,267 feet above the surrounding terrain. The Butte is 867 feet tall when measured from bottom to the summit. Devils Tower has some of the steepest sides of any Butte, making it a popular rock climber’s magnet.
While Native Americans had lived around the monolith for centuries, the first American of Caucasian heritage to visit Devils Tower was William F Raynolds and his team in 1859. William Ripley and William Rogers became the first people to reach Devils Tower’s summit after ascending up the monolith successfully in July 1893 using simple wooden pegs nailed into the butte’s surface. The beauty and uniqueness of Devils Tower led to the establishment of a forest reserve around the monolith in 1892 by the US government, and it was designated as America’s first National Monument in 1906.

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