Federal Committee Recommends Renaming Devils Tower To Bear Lodge
A federal committee has recommended that the Sec. of Interior change the name of Devils Tower to Bear Lodge. She can't, however, because Wyoming is the only state exempt from the Antiquities Act. Only an act of Congress could do so.

Andrew Rossi
June 24, 2024
6 min read


Devils Tower in northeast Wyoming. (Getty Images)

On-again, off-again efforts to rename Devils Tower to Bear Lodge is on again with a federal naming committee pushing for the change. ... The federal Reconciliation in Place Names Committee, a subcommittee of the U.S. Board of Geographic Names, is recommending Secretery of the Interior Deb Haaland submit a request to the Biden administration to change the name of "the sacred geographic feature in Wyoming known as 'Devils Tower'" and the unincorporated community surrounding it to Bear Lodge, which is what it was called by American Indians before it was Devils Tower.

The push comes after the committee’s last meeting June 10-11 in Rapid City, South Dakota. ... Futhermore, the committee suggests Haaland can bypass Biden altogether because she has authority to rename America’s first national monument just as her DOI has renamed hundreds of other geographic features with names derogatory to American Indians and other groups.

Renaming the nation's first national monument has been a divisive issue for a while. Wyomingites who have spent decades living their lives within sight of the massive monolith of rock feel their concerns are being overlooked in the debate.

"They try to do these name changes behind the scenes with no input from the people who are directly impacted," Wyoming Senate President Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, told Cowboy State Daily. "My family's been in this corner of Wyoming for eight generations, and they treat us like somebody that just came off the turnip truck from New York.”

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Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.