Both locals and tourists alike are angry about one major change to a popular national monument. Devils Tower National Monument will no longer be open 24 hours a day.
Officials made the abrupt change on Tuesday that the park will only be open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily starting Thursday onward. It will be closed overnight. Officials haven't revealed why they made the decision about the national monument. But people aren't reacting well to the change.
"This is stupidity at its highest level," said state Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, to Cowboy State Daily. "Devils Tower has been open 24 hours a day, unstaffed, for 50 years. It's been that way forever, and I think it's absolutely ridiculous to do this."
He believes that closing the national monument won't stick and will be hard to enforce. He said that Devils Tower has remained open in the past. "They don't have gates," he said. "The only time Devils Tower has ever been closed in my lifetime was during government shutdowns, and all they did was put barricades at the entrance. It's always been open 24 hours a day."
Some think that National Park Service layoffs may be to blame. But Driskill questions this logic. He points out that staff hadn't previously worked the national monument at night.
"There's absolutely no way they could justify it," he said. "Devils Tower has a proven track record of being open overnight with no employees around. They don't have law enforcement 24/7, and Crook County law enforcement usually responds to any emergencies, which in my 60 years of experience, are very minimal."
National Monument Change
Meanwhile, Laura Redmond with Heart of Wyoming Photography told Cowboy State Daily that the change ruins the chance for photography and stargazing.
"Devils Tower has amazing dark skies," she said of the national monument. "I have captured so many awesome things at night inside the monument, from the Milky Way and the Northern Lights to climbers and comets. They have taken that opportunity away, altogether for everyone."
Redmond disagrees with the closing of the national monument at night.
"I don't know of any reason why they're closing it overnight," she said. "There hasn't been any weather. I haven't heard of any vandalism. I don't know of any other park or monument that'll be closed this way."
Meanwhile, others like Driskill believe that it will affect tourism.
"Our travelers are usually moving between Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone," he said. "If it's widely known that Devils Tower closes at 5 p.m., a huge number of travelers are going to learn they can't get there in time and aren't going to stop. Visitation could plummet."
