Climbing Polymodal Folklore
The Legend of Devil’s Tower

Decker Wentz
Hanover, New Hampshire
May 23, 2019

Informant Data:

Decker Wentz is a 20-year-old sophomore at Dartmouth College. He grew up just outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Decker has been rock climbing with his dad since he was four years old. He would climb about monthly with his dad, going to climbing gyms but mostly climbing at various outdoors locations. In his senior year of high school, he began to really take ownership of climbing as an activity that he loved doing, not just one that he did with his dad. When he came to school at Dartmouth, it became one of the most important things in his life, as he joined the Dartmouth Mountaineering Club (DMC) and the Climbing Team. His first DMC trip was an ice climbing trip his freshman winter, and since then he has become more and more involved in the club. Decker is now a leader in the DMC and currently holds the position of chair. He has also been quite an involved member in the social aspects of both clubs.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context: Every year, the Dartmouth Mountaineering Club runs trips during the break between two terms to climb away from campus. Polymodal climbing folklore, such as climbing legends and stories, are often shared during the trip either during dinners, campfires, or when the group is just hanging out. Polymodal folklore serves as a way to solidify and pass down group identity from generation to generation. Specifically, having knowledge of the legends within one’s group helps the members of the folk group have a better understanding of their origins, values, and identity. In addition, the telling of legends within a group is often a fun way for the current folk group to bond, and is an entertaining experience.

• Cultural Context: The Devils Tower is a monolithic rock formation in northeastern Wyoming that sits 5,112 feet above sea level. It rises 1,267 above the Belle Fourche River. It is a famous rock-climbing location that is difficult to summit. Since it was first summited in 1893, 5,000 people summit it each year. A total of 5 people have died while attempting the climb. 

  Rescue missions are usually left to professional rescuers, and rarely involve individuals outside of the profession, especially in serious cases. Thus, the fact that the rescue teams asked the founder of the DMC to aid in the mission because they were not able to accomplish the rescue is rare and speaks to the difficulty of the mission. That Jack Durrance was able to successfully rescue the man is an incredibly impressive feat.

Text:

[I have recorded The Legend as closely as I could to the way Decker told it to me. The following descriptions were collected from the notes I took during the interview, and are paraphrases of what he shared during the interview.]

Legend has it that a man accidentally parachuted onto the top of the Devil’s Tower and got stuck there. They tried everything they could to rescue him, eventually calling in firemen, helicopters, and even the military, but nothing was working. At that time, the only person who had ever successfully summited the Devil’s Tower was Jack Durrance, who was the founder of the Dartmouth Mountaineering Club. They begged him to help the rescue mission, so he summited Devils Tower again, and safely repelled the man down.

Angela Liu, aged 21
2 North Park St., Hanover, NH
Dartmouth College
Russian 13
Spring 2019