Black Mountains

The Black Mountains are a mountain chain in North Carolina. They are named after the Black appearance of the basalms and fir that are littered on the mountains. They are the highest mountains in the Eastern United States. It is in the Appalachian Mountains, on the NC-TN border. It is home to the Mount Mitchell State Park
== Topography ==
The Black mountains are the highest peaks in the East. It has an almost continuous ridgeline above 6,000 feet. Mount Mitchell is the highest peak east of the Mississippi at 6,684 feet. The northern section of the Black Mountains are drained by the Cane River to the west and the South Toe River to the east, both of which are part of the upper Nolichucky River watershed. The southwestern part of the range is drained by the upper French Broad River which, like the Nolichucky, is west of the Eastern Continental Divide and thus its waters eventually wind up in the Gulf of Mexico. A few of the streams in the southeastern section of the range are part of the Catawba River watershed, and are thus east of the Eastern Continental Divide. 
=== Notable summits ===
Mount Mitchell 	6,684 ft/2,037 m	North-central Blacks	35.76497, −82.265152 	Elisha Mitchell (1793–1857), professor and surveyor
Mount Craig 	6,647 ft/2,026 m	North-central Blacks	35.777584, −82.261759	Locke Craig (1860–1925), North Carolina governor
Balsam Cone 	6,611 ft/2,015 m	North-central Blacks	35.789705, −82.255846	
Cattail Peak 	6,583 ft/2,006 m	North-central Blacks	35.798413, −82.256502	Possibly named for mountain lions that may have once frequented the summit
Big Tom 	6,581 ft/2,006 m	North-central Blacks	35.779698, −82.259854	Thomas "Big Tom" Wilson (1825–1909), legendary bear hunter and mountain guide
Mount Gibbes 	6,560 ft/1,999 m	Southern Blacks 	35.739124, −82.285235	Robert Gibbes, surveyor
Clingmans Peak 	6,540 ft/1,993 m	Southern Blacks 	35.73504, −82.285986 	Thomas Lanier Clingman (1812–1897), politician and surveyor
Potato Hill 	6,475 ft/1,974 m	North-central Blacks	35.801537, −82.25314 	
Potato Knob 	6,420 ft/1,957 m	Southern Blacks 	35.729955, −82.291246	The mountain's shape, resembling an upright potato
Celo Knob 	6,327 ft/1,928 m	Northern Blacks 	35.852423, −82.248678	The Cherokee word selu, meaning "corn".
Mount Hallback 	6,320 ft/1,926 m	North-central Blacks	35.748951, −82.275613	
Blackstock Knob 	6,320 ft/1,926 m	Southern Blacks 	35.738063, −82.318615	Nehemiah Blackstock (1794–1880), surveyor
Gibbs Mountain 	6,224 ft/1,897 m	Northern Blacks 	35.840947, −82.247985	Methodist circuit rider who frequented the area in the early 19th century
Winter Star Mountain	6,212 ft/1,893 m	Northern Blacks 	35.817668, −82.249273	
Yeates Knob 	5,920 ft/1,804 m	Western Blacks 	35.786803, −82.346561	
The Pinnacle 	5,665 ft/1,727 m	Southern Blacks 	35.704308, −82.275411	
== Tourism and Threats ==
The revelation that the Black Mountains were the highest in the Appalachian Range made them an immediate tourist attraction. By the 1850s, a lodge had been established in the southern part of the range, and locals such as Jesse Stepp and Tom Wilson had built several rustic cabins on the higher mountain slopes and were thriving as mountain guides. The American Civil War (1861–1865) brought a temporary halt to the tourism boom, but by the late 1870s, the industry had recovered. In the 1880s, brothers K.M. and David Murchison established a large game preserve in the Cane River Valley which was managed by Tom Wilson.[20]
As forests in the north were cut down to meet the growing demand for lumber in the late 19th century, logging firms turned to the virgin forests of Southern Appalachia. Between 1908 and 1912, northern lumber firms, namely Dickey and Campbell (later Perley and Crockett), Brown Brothers, Carolina Spruce, and Champion Fibre, bought up timber rights to most of the Black Mountains and began a series of massive logging operations in the area. In 1911, Dickey and Campbell managed to construct a narrow-gauge railroad line connecting the Swannanoa Valley with Clingmans Peak. Other narrow-gauge lines quickly followed. Between 1909 and 1915, much of the forest on the upper slopes and crest was cut down. An increase in demand for red spruce during World War I led to the rapid deforestation of much of the spruce-fir forest in the higher elevations. As forests were removed, forest fires (caused by the ignition of dried brush and slash left by loggers) and erosion denuded what was left of the landscape.
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Category:North Carolina History