The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1951-08-03
LAST NAMED PEAKS
STILL INACCESSIBLE
Three of the Highest Mountains in
Eastern America Are in North
Cardinals Black Range

ASHEVILLE.-There are roads
all around them, but few people
have explored two of the highest
peaks in the Appalachian Range
Mt. Craig and Big Tom mountains
in North Cardinals Black Range
near Mt. Mitchell, highest peak in
Eastern America.
Known for years as the Black
Brothers, the twin peaks to the
north of Mitchell are pointed out
now to the thousands of motorists
along the Blue Ridge Parkway as
the last of the Black Mountain
tops to be named officially Tin
1947l by the Federal Board of
Geographical names. They are al
so seen, and photographed most
effectively from NC. Highway No.
80, just north of the Blue Ridge
Parkway, but they can be explor-
ed to their crests only on foot, so
few try it.
FOrest-Covered
Nearly as high as 6,684-ft. Mt.
Mitchell, Mt. Craig scars 6,645 feet
and Big Tom rises 6,558 feet above
sea level. Both are covered with
virgin balsam forest, and the dark
evergreen gives the range its for
bidding name-Black Mountains.
These mountains, highest in the
East, comprise a series of undulat-
ing ridges rather than sharply ris-
ing peaks, and for that reason the
individual mountains tend to blend
rather than stand out as spectac-
ular and readily identifable peaks.
. Naming of the higher peak for
the late Governor Locke Craig was
prompted by his well-known love
of the mountains. Craig, a native
lowlander who moved to Asheville,
was Governor from the beginning
of the "T-model era" in 1918 I'M
til 1917 when North Cardinals
great bodybuilding urge was TAX
ing form and mountaineers were
proclaiming plans to open "every
cove of the Mitchell Country to
every Tar Heel"
That is now we'll on the way to-
ward accomplishment in the cur
rent $200,000,000 rural road build
ing program inaugurated by Gov
ernor Kerr Scott.
'Big Tom" Wilson
Designation of the north peak
as Big Tom was merely official
endorsement of name which has
endured locally for half century.
1t was named for Big Tom Wilson,
the most famous bear-hunter the
South ever had, and man of such
prodigious feats that none of his
contemporaries ever thought of
him without prefixing "Big".
Unlike the Bunyan of the north
woods, Big Toms Workmanship
was real. With axe and gun and
hoe he carved out a pioneers en-
pire in the most rugged land this
side of the Rockies, and even be-
fore This death he was enshrined
as one of the greatest mountain
GERS of the Appalachians.
Big Tom had passion for bear
hunting, a fervor he communicate
ed to his son, Adolphus, and so
to his grandson Ewart, who today
hunts over the 1900 acres of VIII
son bear lands in the shadow of
Mitchell and Big Tom. It was said
OF Big Tom that he could go out
IN the morning and get a bear as
readily as a housewife could step
into the backyard to wiring chick
ems neck.
Although bear hunting brought
most attention to Big Tom, he was
also known as a mountain host
guide and tracker. 1t was he who
followed days-old trail to find the
body of DR.. Elisha Mitchell. who
lost his life while exploring the
mountain which bears his name
Ihls trailing over miles of the
most difficult terrain was widely
acclaimed at the time. In the wears
Iollowlng the Civil War, the Will
son nome was favorite stopping
Place Tor travellers and bear-bunt.