This distinctive formation can be viewed from Highway 89 and was created from alternate beds of limestone, sandstone, quartzites[2] that have been tilted to lie nearly vertical and have eroded at different rates.

Langford described the formation in his Wonders of the Yellowstone published in the May 1871 edition of Scribner's Monthly: Here an object met our attention which deserves more than a casual notice.

Here an entire mountainside, by wind and water, had been removed, leaving as the evidences of their protracted toil these vertical projections, which, but for their immensity, might as readily be mistaken for works of art as of nature.

Their smooth sides, uniform width and height, and great length, considered in connection with the causes which had wrought their insulation, excited our wonder and admiration.

The suggestion was unfortunate, as, with more reason perhaps, but with no better taste, we frequently had occasion to appropriate other portions of the person of his Satanic Majesty, or of his dominion, in signification of the varied marvels we met with.