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On 31 July 2017, the Facebook page Casper Planet posted a message with the claim that the Wyoming State Parks Department had discovered a large network of tree roots beneath the base of Devil's Tower (which, if you have never been, you may recognize from the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind): This would be an exciting, landmark discovery ... except that there is absolutely no truth to the claim. The Casper Planet Facebook page is an entertainment Facebook page that frequently posts photoshopped pictures, political jokes, and other humorous content. The About section of the page clearly says that their content is served with a big side order of satire: In this case, Casper Planet is mocking a conspiracy theory, which springs out of flat-earth theory, holding that most mountains are simply the remains of ancient, gargantuan trees. Although Casper Planet did include a genuine photograph of Devil's Tower, the pictured root system has little to do with the famous igneous rock formation in Wyoming. The image is actually a diagram showing how the roots of sweet corn have developed after eight weeks: The original image (right) showed that the roots extended four feet into the ground. It appears that Casper Planet changed this label to read four miles. Although geologists are not entirely in agreement about how Devil's Tower was formed, this debate is more focused on the formation process, and less about whether the earth was once populated with atavistic, ten-mile-high trees: Wyoming State Parks also addressed the claim in a 1 August 2017 Facebook post:
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