Geography fun facts and oddities: Difference between revisions

* '''Devil's Tower'''

** a butte formation in Wyoming that abruptly juts out of the landscape 1,267 ft high

** the name comes from an English misinterpretation of the Native American name for it

*** the native name is "bear's house" (among others) and was understood in English by a US Army expedition leader as "Bad God's Tower," thus "Devil's Tower"

*** a Native American legend of its origin is that young girls where chased by bears, and their prayers for salvation were answered by the "Great Spirit" by lifting the rock they sat upon into the air, out of reach from the bears, whose claws scratched marks into the sides of the rock while trying to reach them.  

** See [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devils_Tower Devil's Tower (wiki)]]

* '''Independence Rock'''

** famous for unique formation and 19th century graffiti  

** a 130 ft high granite rock in Wyoming that sticks up out of the prairie

** located at the southeast end of the Granite Mountains

** served as a landmark for 19th century western settlers, some of whom carved their names on the rock and some of which are still visible

* '''Pompy's Tower" (Pompey's Pillar National Monument)'''

** famous for inscription by William Clark from 1806

** rock formation rising from the Montana plain

** 150 ft tall, located near the Yellowstone River

** one of the smallest National Monuments in the US (21 acre site)

** famous for its graffiti,  

*** including an inscription by William ** William Clark, of the Lewis & Clark Expedition (1803-06) inscribed his name on the rock on July 25, 1806

** <pre>“This rock which I shall Call Pompy's Tower is 200 feet high and 400 paces in secumphrance… The nativs have ingraved on the face of this rock the figures of animals &c. near which I marked my name and the day of the month & year.”

** he named it "Pompy's Tower" after his nickname for the son of his translators, Sacagawea and Toussaint Charbonneau</pre>

* '''Three Sisters''' or '''Three Sisters Islands'''

** three rocky islands in the Potomac River in Washington, DC

*** three Native American sisters who died crossing the river there while trying to rescue their brothers who had been kidnapped by another tribe

*** three Native American sisters who were banished to the islands after refusing the husbands selected for them by their father; the sisters cursed the spot, which is said to make an eerie sound whenever the River is about to take a life

*** a 1925 novel included a story about three nuns who drowned at the spot

* Qaṣr Al-Farīd

** basalt rocks in northwestern Saudi Arabia that are exposed as large outcrops due to erosion around them

** this one was turned into a temple by the Nabataeans

*** = same people who built the fabulous ancient city of Petra, in which many structures were carved into and out of canyon walls

* Madison Boulder