Strange Sighting at Devil Towers Wyoming. Devils Tower (“Bear Lodge”) is located in the Black Hills, Wyoming. It rises dramatically 1,267 feet (386 m) above the surrounding terrain and the summit is 5,112 feet (1,558 m) above sea level. Film director Steven Spielberg used the location in his 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The name Devil’s Tower originated in 1875 during an expedition led by Col. Richard Irving Dodge when his interpreter misinterpreted the name to mean Bad God’s Tower. This was later shortened to the Devils Tower.