Devil’s Tower, WY., is first ever National Monument.

Several little Native American girls were playing in the area when they were suddenly confronted by a hungry bear intent on making them his meal. The girls prayed for salvation, and suddenly, the very ground under them rose up high in the air, away from the bear’s reach. The bear clawed the mountain, in vain: try as he might, the girls were safe. This was the Indian mythic explanation for a curious formation known as the Devil’s Tower (the geological one, involving centuries of erosion, is considerably less colorful).

On this day, September 24, in 1906, Theodore Roosevelt made the Devil’s Tower the first ever National Monument.

Roosevelt invoked the Antiquities Act which authorized him to place under special protection “historical landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are upon lands owned or controlled by the United States as National Monuments.”