Devils Tower, Wyoming —
The buzz started in a hay meadow at the foot of a mysterious-looking geological formation. Helicopters and trailers arrived in large numbers, famous faces and a distinguished director settled in near grazing cattle, and the cameras started rolling.
Fifty years ago, Devils Tower National Monument became a beacon for humans entranced by brushes with aliens in director Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” And in turn, the 867-foot monolith protruding from the surrounding Wyoming prairie like the stump of the world’s largest tree became a big draw for tourists.
The film stars Richard Dreyfuss as Roy Neary, a…