Wyoming Wildfire Near Devils Tower, What Visitors Need To Know

A fire that has scarred nearly 300 acres continues burning just outside of Devils Tower National Monument parkland. If that were not bad enough, another fire has erupted to the southeast.

Due to the fires, the monument was closed on both Saturday and Sunday of this past weekend. The tower will be open again Monday, 08/03/26. But not everything will be open.

It's being called the Newton Fire, and it is burning just east of Wyoming Highway 24 southeast of Devils Tower. The fire was discovered at about 1:15 p.m. Saturday.

Reports are calling the fire "human-caused."

According to alerts on the park's website:

Devils Tower National Monument will open Monday, August 3, 2026, at 8:00 am to normal operational hours. However, all trails and backcountry resources will remain closed for visitor safety until further notice. Fire vehicles and crews remain active in the park.

Campgrounds in the area will remain closed, and a fire ban is in effect due to dry conditions. There is nothing on the KOA campground website about being closed or needing to reopen. Official reports showed that the KOA did not close during the weekend.

It has been hot and dry out, and this weekend's temperatures topped 100F.

Fires in this area are not unusual. According to the National Park Service, "Historically, the ponderosa pine forests surrounding the tower experience a natural fire cycle every 10 to 15 years."

Tree-ring data: A 691-year tree-ring study spanning from 1312 to 2002 recorded 129 individual fire scars at Devils Tower.

Natural intervals: The historical mean fire interval was roughly 24.6 years across centuries, but spiked to every 5.7 years between 1860 and 1880 during early Euro-American settlement.

Lightning activity: Mid-century records (1951–1979) documented 35 lightning-caused fires, primarily peaking during summer months.

Devils Tower in Wyoming became the first U.S. National Monument in 1906, after being named during a 1875 U.S. military expedition.

The Tate Geological Museum Casper Wyoming

The Tate Geological Museum was founded in 1980 through a gift from Marion and Inez Tate. It was originally designated as the Tate Earth Science Center and Mineralogical Museum. Because ‘geological’ encompasses earth science, mineralogy, and paleontology, the name was changed to the Tate Geological Museum in 2001.

Located on the Casper College campus, the museum is a great resource for the community. Many local schools and groups come to the museum to add to their student's learning experience.

Tate houses a collection of over 6000 fossil and mineral specimens.

Gallery Credit: Glenn Woods