Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 5 hours ago
America's first National Monument was proclaimed in 1906. Weirdly though, it wasn't always called Devils Tower. In fact, for as long as humans have known about the Tower, it has carried a different, far less satanic name: Bear Lodge. This is a video about how the name Devils Tower came about, the quirky nomenclatural rules about how we name places in the US, and how we ascribe, or remove, meaning to those places. Enjoy!
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Sources and Resources:
nps.gov/articles/devils-tower-name-genesis.htm#:~:text=by%20then%2DLt.-,Col.,%22Devil's%20Tower%22%20was%20created.
wyomingpublicmedia.org/politics-government/2025-01-10/lummis-and-barrasso-reintroduce-bill-to-maintain-the-name-devils-tower-in-multi-decade-effort
nationalparkstraveler.org/2018/11/hell-place-devils-role-national-park-place-names
Images and Music:
Storyblocks
Sacred Ecology
America's first National Monument was proclaimed in 1906. Weirdly though, it wasn't always called Devils Tower. In fact, for as long as humans have known about the Tower, it has carried a different, far less satanic name: Bear Lodge. This is a video about how the name Devils Tower came about, the quirky nomenclatural rules about how we name places in the US, and how we ascribe, or remove, meaning to those places. Enjoy!
Support me on Patreon: patreon.com/c/nationalparkdiaries
Follow me on Instagram: instagram.com/nationalparkdiaries
Follow me on Threads: threads.com/@nationalparkdiaries
Sources and Resources:
nps.gov/articles/devils-tower-name-genesis.htm#:~:text=by%20then%2DLt.-,Col.,%22Devil's%20Tower%22%20was%20created.
wyomingpublicmedia.org/politics-government/2025-01-10/lummis-and-barrasso-reintroduce-bill-to-maintain-the-name-devils-tower-in-multi-decade-effort
nationalparkstraveler.org/2018/11/hell-place-devils-role-national-park-place-names
Images and Music:
Storyblocks
Sacred Ecology
![[NEW SERIES] He Was the First Person to Lead the Park Service | Park Profiles: Stephen Mather](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mvNAWrbN05s/mqdefault.jpg "[NEW SERIES] He Was the First Person to Lead the Park Service | Park Profiles: Stephen Mather
Exciting new video this week! Im debuting a new series on the channel called Park Profiles, where Ill be discussing some of the most important people involved with National Parks and conservation through the years. My intention with this series is to help you all become familiar with some of the most seminal park people and use these videos as filler/reference videos for some of the other stories Ive already told and will tell on the channel. I dont always get to fully flesh these people out in regular videos due to time constraints and story flow, so I hope this series will help ameliorate some of that problem - and of course introduce you to some pretty cool people who have played a huge role in protecting National Parks around the world!
To start off with, of course, I had to go with Stephen Mather, the first director of the National Park Service and the man most responsible for shaping the Service as we know it today.
Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nationalparkdiaries
Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationalparkdiaries/
Sources and Resources:
https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/66000877_text
https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/sontag/mather.htm
https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/albright2/pdf/ch4.pdf
https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-national-parks/stephen-mather
https://todayinconservation.com/2020/03/july-4-stephen-mather-founding-director-of-the-national-park-service-born-1867/
https://vault.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/people/mather.aspx
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-guest-room/201803/the-triumph-manic-mather
https://archive.ph/20130223091425/http://www.aapra.org/Pugsley/MatherStephen.html
Images and Music:
Storyblocks
National Park Service
Library of Congress
Save the Redwoods League
Yosemite Research Library
Mather Homestead
Cal Alumni Association
DH Hubbard Collection
Bancroft Library")
