In truth, not many have taken on Tennessee's terrain, as the county HP movement has been focused on New England and the West. He was surprised by the rugged hiking on the eroded loess banks of Dyer County, charmed by the Maple Creek fire tower at Natchez Trace, punished by poison ivy and a wet, briar-filled thicket in Loudon County, and most impressed by the view from Lookout Mountain, Hamilton County's high point. Looking over the Tennessee HPs, it is easy to understand why so many are found near county or state lines. No one in their right mind would have laid out a county with a mountain in the middle of things. Sullivan County's HP, ranked ninth in elevation, is the highest one completely within Tennessee territory, as the eight higher county HPs are set on the North Carolina border.
Good mountains make good neighbors.
Cross Mountain, our highest peak in the Cumberland Mountains, is the only true Tennessee twofer, representing both Anderson and Campbell counties' high point. It was the site of an Air Force radar installation during the Cold War, reportedly staffed by more than 300 personnel. Cannon County has sole possession of the highest Tennessee point west of the Plateau, Short Mountain, which at 2,092-feet in elevation upstages numerous Plateau counties, including Fentress, Pickett, and Franklin. Many of us have repeated the falsehood that Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park's Pilot Knob is the highest point in West Tennessee. Chester County's Sand Mountain, at 740-feet, is the glory, the rooftop, the apex of West Tennessee.