Inyan Kara Mountain (, Rock Gatherer) is a mountain associated with the

Bear Lodge Mountains The Bear Lodge Mountains () are a small mountain range in Crook County, Wyoming. These mountains are protected in the Black Hills National Forest as part of its Bearlodge District. Devils Tower National Monument was the first U.S. National Mon ...

Crook County, Wyoming Crook County is a County (United States), 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 la ...

, (part of the

Black Hills 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 , is the range's highest summit. The name of the range ...

) that is considered sacred by the

Lakota people The Lakota (; or ) are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people. Also known as the Teton Sioux (from ), they are one of the three prominent subcultures of the Sioux people, with the Eastern Dakota (Santee) and Western D ...

, particularly for mothers in childbirth. Inyan Kara stands apart from the main body of the Black Hills, with an elevation of . 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. The peak was visited by

George Armstrong Custer George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars. Custer graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point ...

during

Custer's 1874 Black Hills Expedition The Black Hills Expedition was a United States Army expedition in 1874 led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer that set out on July 2, 1874, from Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory, which is south of modern day Mandan, North Dakota, ...

, reaching the summit on July 23. The peak was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1973.

Photo gallery

File:Inyan Kara, altitude 6,000 feet, by Illingworth, W. H. (William H.), 1842-1893.jpg, ''Inyan Kara, altitude 6,000 feet.'', a stereoscopic photograph from 1874 by William H. Illingworth File:Black Hills Mountains from Inyan Kara.JPG, The Black Hills from the summit of Inyan Kara File:Black Hills Prairie from Inyan Kara.JPG, The prairie surrounding the Black Hills from the summit of Inyan Kara

References

External links

Inyan Kara Mountain
at the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office
Inyan Kara Mountain
at

Black Hills National Forest 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 ...

* Penry, Jerry
"Sacred Mountain—Climbing Inyan Kara"
''American Surveyor, The.'' Vol. 10, Issue 10, 27 September 2013 Mountains of Crook County, Wyoming Mountains of Wyoming Black Hills Natural features on the National Register of Historic Places in Wyoming Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Wyoming National Register of Historic Places in Crook County, Wyoming Religious places of the Indigenous peoples of North America Sacred mountains of the United States {{Wyoming-NRHP-stub