Crook County is a county in the northeastern corner of the U.S. state of Wyoming. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 7,181, making it the third-least populous county in Wyoming. Its county seat and largest city is Sundance. The county is located at the northwestern extreme of the Black Hills, which are its defining geographical feature.
Sundance is a town in and the county seat of Crook County, Wyoming, United States. Its population was 1,032 at the 2020 census. The town is named after the Sun Dance ceremony practiced by several American Indian tribes.
Devils Tower is a butte, possibly laccolithic, composed of igneous rock in the Bear Lodge Ranger District of the Black Hills, near Hulett and Sundance in Crook County, northeastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River. It rises 1,267 feet (386 m) above the Belle Fourche River, standing 867 feet (264 m) from summit to base. The summit is 5,112 feet (1,558 m) above sea level.
Devils Postpile National Monument is a U.S. National Monument located near Mammoth Mountain in Eastern California. The monument protects Devils Postpile, an unusual rock formation of columnar basalt, "all closely and perfectly fitted together like a vast mosaic." The monument encompasses 798 acres (323 ha) and includes two main attractions: the Devils Postpile formation and Rainbow Falls, a waterfall on the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River. In addition, the John Muir Trail and Pacific Crest Trail merge into one trail as they pass through the monument. Excluding a small developed area containing the monument headquarters, visitor center and a campground, the National Monument lies within the borders of the Ansel Adams Wilderness.
The St. Francois Mountains in southeast Missouri are a mountain range of Precambrian igneous mountains rising over the Ozark Plateau. This range is one of the oldest exposures of igneous rock in North America. The name of the range is spelled out as Saint Francois Mountains in official GNIS sources, but it is sometimes misspelled in use as St. Francis Mountains to match the anglicized pronunciation of both the range and St. Francois County.
The Bighorn Mountains are a mountain range in northern Wyoming and southern Montana in the United States, forming a northwest-trending spur from the Rocky Mountains extending approximately 200 mi (320 km) northward on the Great Plains. They are separated from the Absaroka Range, which lie on the main branch of the Rockies to the west, by the Bighorn Basin. Much of the land is contained within the Bighorn National Forest.
The Belle Fourche River is a tributary of the Cheyenne River, approximately 290 miles (470 km) long, in the U.S. states of Wyoming and South Dakota. It is part of the Mississippi River watershed via the Cheyenne and Missouri rivers. In the latter part of the 19th century, the Belle Fourche River was known as the North Fork of the Cheyenne River. Belle Fourche is a name derived from French meaning "beautiful fork".
The Cheyenne River, also written Chyone, referring to the Cheyenne people who once lived there, is a tributary of the Missouri River in the U.S. states of Wyoming and South Dakota. It is approximately 295 miles (475 km) long and drains an area of 24,240 square miles (62,800 km2). About 60% of the drainage basin is in South Dakota and almost all of the remainder is in Wyoming.
Bear Butte is a geological laccolith feature located near Sturgis, South Dakota, United States, that was established as a State Park in 1961. An important landmark and religious site for the Plains Indians tribes long before Europeans reached South Dakota, Bear Butte is called Matȟó Pahá, or Bear Mountain, by the Lakota, or Sioux. To the Cheyenne, it is known as Noahȧ-vose or Náhkȯhe-vose, and is the place where Ma'heo'o imparted to Sweet Medicine, a Cheyenne prophet, the knowledge from which the Cheyenne derive their religious, political, social, and economic customs.
Black Hills National Forest is located in southwestern South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming, United States. The forest has an area of over 1.25 million acres (5,066 km2) and is managed by the Forest Service. Forest headquarters are located in Custer, South Dakota. There are local ranger district offices in Custer, Rapid City, and Spearfish in South Dakota, and in Sundance, Wyoming.
Wyoming Highway 24 (WYO 24), also known as the Bear Lodge Highway, is a 46.72-mile (75.19 km) state highway in Crook County, Wyoming, United States. that connects U.S. Route 14 (US 14) in Carlile Junction with South Dakota Highway 34 (SD 34) at the South Dakota state line. The route passes through the northern portion of the Bear Lodge Mountains, part of the Black Hills National Forest. The highway also passes by Devils Tower National Monument.
Beulah is a census-designated place (CDP) in eastern Crook County, Wyoming, United States, along Sand Creek, a tributary of the Belle Fourche River. According to local residents, the population is 33. When the 2010 census reported the population as 73, the highway sign at the town entrance was changed. In 2012, Beulah residents succeeded in appealing to the Wyoming Governor to remove the new sign and replace it with one that proclaimed the population to be 33.
Bear Lodge National Forest is a discontinued entity which has been absorbed into the Black Hills National Forest. It is located in the U.S. in the state of Wyoming, in the north central part of the American mainland. It was established in the Bear Lodge Mountains by the U.S. Forest Service in Wyoming on July 1, 1907, with 136,784 acres (553.55 km2). The forest was named for Devils Tower or the "Bear Lodge". On July 1, 1908, the forest was combined with part of Black Hills National Forest to establish Sundance National Forest and the name was discontinued. The lands are presently included in Black Hills National Forest.
The Black Hills is an isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, United States. Black Elk Peak, which rises to 7,242 feet (2,207 m), is the range's highest summit. The name of the range in Lakota is Pahá Sápa. It encompasses the Black Hills National Forest. It formed as a result of an upwarping of ancient rock, after which the removal of the higher portions of the mountain mass by stream erosion produced the present-day topography. The hills are so called because of their dark appearance from a distance, as they are covered in evergreen trees.
The Great Race is a Native American legend surrounding the Red Racetrack, a ring shaped depression surrounding the interior of the Black Hills. The legend tells the story of when buffalo and man raced each other to establish order in the universe. The stories differ from tribe to tribe but the constant theme is that man established supremacy over the buffalo. This story is also associated with the origins of the Sun Dance and the Medicine Lodge. Taking place in July, Sun Dance is four to eight days of dancing in order to try to connect with the Great Spirit.
Inyan Kara Mountain is a mountain associated with the Bear Lodge Mountains of Crook County, Wyoming, that is considered sacred by the Lakota people, particularly for mothers in childbirth. Inyan Kara stands apart from the main body of the Black Hills, with an elevation of 6,368 feet (1,941 m). The mountain was stated to rumble on quiet days by the local Native Americans and by early explorers. No mention of the noises is found after 1833; the noise has been attributed to gas escaping from burning coal seams.
Missouri Buttes or Little Missouri Buttes are located in Crook County in northeast Wyoming on the northwest flank of the Black Hills Uplift. The buttes are 3.5 miles (5.6 km) northwest (N60°W) of Devils Tower between the Little Missouri and the Belle Fourche rivers.
The Spearfish Formation is a geologic formation, originally described from the Black Hills region of South Dakota, United States, but also recognised in North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana and Nebraska. It is a heterogeneous red bed formation, commonly with siltstone and gypsum low in the formation and sandstone and shale higher up. Other rock types include claystone, conglomerate, dolomite, and oil shale. It is typically regarded as Permian–Triassic in age, although its original description included Jurassic rocks.
The Inyan Kara Group is a geologic group classification applied in South Dakota and adopted in portions of Wyoming and Montana. It preserves fossils of the mid-Cretaceous period. Of late Albian age, this classification correlates with the lower Dakota Formation known in the southwest corner of the State.
The Elk Mountains are a small range of mountains in western South Dakota, forming the southwest portion of the Black Hills as part of its west-dipping monocline. They are geologically distinct from the Black Hills, on the other side of a "racetrack" region of red stone. The ridge of the Elk Mountains is formed of harder sandstones. The east face of the Elk Mountains is a 300-to-800-foot high escarpment, but the west portion falls slowly and features many canyons.
