Devils Tower rises 1,267 feet above low hills in northeastern Wyoming, sticking up above the meandering grass-lined Belle Fourche River like a climber’s sore thumb. The tower is a hardened stock of once-molten magma injected into softer sedimentary rock layers that have long since eroded away, leaving an erosion-resistant core of porphyry. Vertical joints and cracks along the sides of tall columns crease the flanks of the tower, offering numerous lines of passage for rock climbers to ascend to its spacious summit.

Cowboy Ascent of Devils Tower in 1893

While the first climbing ascent was on June 28, 1937 by Fritz Wiessner, Lawrence Coveney, and William P. House, three of America’s best climbers at that time, Devils Tower was actually first ascended by a couple local Wyoming cowboys in the summer of 1893. The pair’s brave ascent predated John Otto’s famed climb up a pipe and log ladder on 450-foot-high Independence Monument in western Colorado by twelve years.

William Rogers and Willard Ripley Decide to Climb Tower

Henry Newton, a government geologist, studied and described Devils Tower in 1875 and made that observation that it was “inaccessible to anything without wings.” Local yokels, however, took that comment as a challenge and a couple local ranchers, William Rogers and Willard Ripley, decided that they were going to be the first humans to scale forbidding Devils Tower. Rather than being just mere daredevils, Rogers and Ripley determined to make their ascent not only a patriotic endeavor but also a profitable business enterprise.

Wooden Ladder Built in June 1893

Rogers and Ripley set the date as July 4 on the occasion of the big local Fourth of July picnic and set to work in early June to construct a ladder to the summit. First they hewed a big pile of 30-inch-long wooden stakes similar in size to a modern 2 x 4-inch piece of lumber and then pounded them into a continuous 350-foot-high crack system (some accounts say it was 270 feet high) between two columns on the southeast side of Devils Tower, facing the fairgrounds where the picnic was to be held. On the outside of the stakes, they hammered a long strip of 2 x 4-inch lumber, forming a crude but safe ladder up the vertical crack.

Handbill Advertised Ascent of Tower on July 4th

Prior to the July Fourth festivities, a handbill was distributed across northeastern Wyoming, declaring that there would be an ascent of the Tower as well as “plenty to eat and drink” and “dancing day and night.” A further enticement was that there would be hay and grain for the horses.

Big Crowd Watches Rogers Climb Ladder

On the big day, a crowd, variously estimated as between 1,000 and 7,000 people and traveling as far as 125 miles from Rapid City, South Dakota, a week’s journey away by horse and cart, watched with gaping mouths as William Rogers, after an invocation by the local preacher, scaled the wooden ladder and scrambled up to the high flat summit of Devils Tower. On top, he unfurled an American flag while the crowd below cheered enthusiastically.

Extra Money Made by Cutting up Summit Flag

After Ripley climbed to the summit, a party of five men scampered up the wooden ladder. At the end of the day, Rogers and Ripley saw an opportunity to cash in and bank a few extra dollars when the flag from the summit blew off the Tower. It was picked up and taken back to the dance floor at the picnic where the two cut it up and sold the pieces to onlookers as souvenirs. The stars sold for fifty cents each while the sliced stripes sold for twenty-five cents.

Ladder Climbed Numerous Times Until 1927

After the historic ascent up the wooden ladder, others climbed it to the Devils Tower summit, including Linnie Rogers, William’s wife, who climbed it two years later, becoming the first woman to stand on the Tower’s summit. It is estimated that about 215 people ascended the ladder over the next 30 years. The last ascent was in 1927 by Babe “The Human Fly” White, a stunt climber. In the early 1930s, the National Park Service decided to remove the first 100 feet of the ladder for safety reasons so that other human flies would avoid the temptation and fall to their death if the lumber rungs failed.

View the Existing Ladder from Tower Trail

The upper section of the Rogers and Ripley ladder is still in place and can be seen on the southeast flank of Devils Tower. An interpretative sign on the south part of the Tower Trail, which circumnavigates the Tower, explains the ladder, ascent, and provides a good view of the remaining ladder section.  The 170-feet of ladder still extant was restored in 1972. The old stakes were straightened and pounded back in, 18 feet of missing rungs were installed, and a 1 x 4-inch lumber rail, like that originally used, was hammered to the ends of the stakes.