Six Days on Top of Devils Tower

A Landing Without an Exit

Hopkins was an experienced parachutist preparing a publicity campaign around another proposed feat: a record number of jumps in a single day. Landing on Devils Tower would attract attention. He had not obtained permission from the National Park Service.

The summit gave him enough ground to land, but the route back was another matter. The tower’s steep sides had already made it a serious climbing challenge. Hopkins’s plan depended on the dropped rope, roughly a thousand feet long, being available where he could use it.

Once that failed, aircraft supplied food, warm clothing, and other necessities. Each delivery had to reach a small target high above the surrounding ground. The stunt became a rescue operation, watched from below and followed well beyond the park.

Climbers Reach the Summit

Park officials sought experienced climbers who could bring Hopkins down safely. Jack Durrance, who had established a climbing route on the tower a few years earlier, traveled to Wyoming to assist. Bad weather delayed his journey, and he reached the area on October 5.

By then, Hopkins had spent several nights exposed on the summit. The National Park Service recorded approximately 7,000 visitors arriving during the episode. People came to watch, while newspapers followed the continuing effort to retrieve him.

On October 6, a party of eight climbers made the ascent. They reached Hopkins and brought him down using climbing ropes and assistance. He had been on top for six days.

The photograph taken during the episode shows how broad the summit looks once someone is standing on it. The problem was at its edges. Hopkins could walk around the top and receive supplies, but he could not make the descent his original plan had promised.

Hopkins later worked training military parachutists during World War II. His attempt at Devils Tower remained an unusual episode in the park’s climbing history: the stranded man had arrived from above, while his rescuers had to climb up from below.