| Mount Mitchell | |
|---|---|
 Mount Mitchell, viewed fromthe Blue Ridge Parkway inNorth Carolina | |
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 6,684 ft (2,037 m)[1] |
| Prominence | 6,089 ft (1,856 m)[1] |
| Isolation | 1,189 miles (1,914 km) |
| Listing | |
| Coordinates | 35°45′53″N82°15′54″W / 35.764839°N 82.2651221°W /35.764839; -82.2651221[2] |
| Geography | |
  Mount Mitchell North Carolina, U.S. Show map of North Carolina Mount Mitchell Mount Mitchell (the United States) Show map of the United States | |
| Location | Yancey County, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Parent range | Appalachian Mountains |
| Topo map | USGS Mount Mitchell |
| Climbing | |
| Easiest route | Hike |
Mount Mitchell (Attakulla inCherokee)[3] is the highest peak of theAppalachian Mountains and the highest peak in mainlandNorth America east of theMississippi River. It is located nearBurnsville inYancey County,North Carolina in theBlack Mountain subrange of the Appalachians about 19 miles (31 km) northeast ofAsheville. It is protected byMount Mitchell State Park and surrounded by thePisgah National Forest. Mount Mitchell's elevation is 6,684 feet (2,037 m) above sea level.[1] Mount Mitchell is ranked 31st bytopographic isolation.
The peak is the highest mountain in the United States east of theMississippi River,[4][5] and the highest in all of eastern North America south of theArctic Cordillera.Barbeau Peak is higher but is located in the very remoteCanadian Arctic. The nearest higher peaks are in theBlack Hills of South Dakota and the highland foothills ofColorado. The mountain'stopographic isolation is calculated from the nearest discernible single higher point:Lone Butte, which is 1,189 miles (1,913 km) away in southeastern Colorado.[citation needed]
Mount Mitchell was the highest mountain of theUnited States from 1789 until theLouisiana Purchase in 1803 whenMount Elbert became the highest mountain claimed by the United States. Mount Mitchell was also the most isolated peak in the United States from 1789 until theTreaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 whenMount Whitney became the most isolated.
TheCherokee people, who long occupied this area as part of their homeland, called the mountainAttakulla.[3] European-American settlers first called the mountain Black Dome for its rounded shape. They later named it afterElisha Mitchell, a professor at theUniversity of North Carolina, who first explored the Black Mountain region in 1835. He determined that the height of the range exceeded by several hundred feet that ofMount Washington inNew Hampshire. The latter had been commonly thought at the time to be the highest point in the United States east of theRocky Mountains. Mitchell fell to his death at nearbyMitchell Falls in 1857, where he had returned to verify his earlier measurements.[citation needed]
A 4.6-mile (7.4 km) road (NC 128) connects the scenicBlue Ridge Parkway to a parking lot where a steep paved 980-foot (300 m) trail leads through aconifer forest to the summit. The 40-foot (12 m) stone observation tower on the summit was torn down in late 2006. A new observation deck was constructed and opened to visitors in January 2009.[6]
Mount Mitchell was formed during the Precambrian when marine deposits were metamorphosed intogneiss andschist. Thesemetasedimentary rocks were later uplifted during theAlleghenian orogeny.[7] The soils are well drained, dark brown and stony with fine-earth material ranging in texture from sandy clay loam to loam or sandy loam; Burton and Craggey are the most common series around the summit.[8]
 | This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Mount Mitchell" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(August 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
The mountain's summit is coated in a dense stand ofSouthern Appalachian spruce-fir forest, which consists primarily of two evergreen species—thered spruce and theFraser fir. Most of the mature Fraser firs, however, were killed off by the non-nativeBalsam woolly adelgid in the latter half of the 20th century. The high elevations expose plant life to high levels of pollution, includingacid precipitation in the form of rain, snow, and fog. These acids damage the red spruce trees in part by releasing natural metals from the soil, such asaluminum, and by leaching importantminerals. To what extent this pollution harms the high-altitude ecosystem is debatable.[9]
While the mountain is still mostly lush and green in the summer, many dead Fraser fir trunks can be seen due to these serious problems. Reducing air pollution is a difficult issue, as the pollutants are often carried by air to this area from long distances. Sources can be local or hundreds of miles away, requiring cooperation from as far away as theMidwest.
Wildflowers are abundant all summer long. Young fir and spruce trees do well in the subalpine climate, and their cones feed the birds along with wildblueberry andblackberry shrubs.
The second highest point in eastern North America,Mount Craig at 6,647 feet (2,026 m), is roughly a mile to the north of Mount Mitchell.
| Mount Mitchell | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Climate chart (explanation) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The summit area of Mount Mitchell is marked by a warm-summerhumid continental climate (KöppenDfb), with mild summers and long, moderately cold winters, being more similar to southeastern Canada than thesoutheastern U.S. The monthly daily average temperature ranges from 25.1 °F (−3.8 °C) in January to 59.6 °F (15.3 °C) in July. The coldest temperature ever recorded in the state occurred there on January 21, 1985, when it fell to −34 °F (−36.7 °C), during asevere cold spell. It is also the coldest average reporting station in the state at 42.9 °F (6.1 °C), well below any other station.[11]
Unlike the lower elevations in the surrounding regions, heavy snows often fall from December to March, with 50 inches (1.27 m) accumulating in theGreat Blizzard of 1993 and 33 inches (0.84 m) in theJanuary 2016 blizzard.[12][11] Due to the high elevation, precipitation is heavy and reliable year-round, averaging 81.09 inches (2,060 mm) for the year, with no month receiving less than 5 in (127 mm) of average precipitation. The summit is often windy, with recorded gusts of up to 178 mph (286 km/h).[13]
Mount Mitchell recorded a new state record of 139.94 inches (3,554.5 mm) of precipitation in 2018, which is also the highest total rainfall recorded during a calendar year anywhere east of theCascade Range in theContiguous United States.[14]
| Climate data for Mount Mitchell, North Carolina (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1980–present) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °F (°C) | 61 (16) | 62 (17) | 73 (23) | 73 (23) | 78 (26) | 79 (26) | 80 (27) | 81 (27) | 77 (25) | 73 (23) | 67 (19) | 64 (18) | 81 (27) |
| Mean maximum °F (°C) | 51.0 (10.6) | 52.3 (11.3) | 58.6 (14.8) | 66.6 (19.2) | 69.6 (20.9) | 72.7 (22.6) | 74.0 (23.3) | 73.3 (22.9) | 70.8 (21.6) | 66.5 (19.2) | 59.0 (15.0) | 53.5 (11.9) | 75.2 (24.0) |
| Mean daily maximum °F (°C) | 33.5 (0.8) | 35.5 (1.9) | 41.0 (5.0) | 50.2 (10.1) | 57.8 (14.3) | 63.8 (17.7) | 66.8 (19.3) | 66.0 (18.9) | 61.4 (16.3) | 53.6 (12.0) | 44.8 (7.1) | 37.7 (3.2) | 51.0 (10.6) |
| Daily mean °F (°C) | 25.1 (−3.8) | 27.0 (−2.8) | 32.3 (0.2) | 41.1 (5.1) | 49.5 (9.7) | 56.3 (13.5) | 59.6 (15.3) | 58.6 (14.8) | 53.8 (12.1) | 45.2 (7.3) | 36.2 (2.3) | 29.6 (−1.3) | 42.9 (6.1) |
| Mean daily minimum °F (°C) | 16.7 (−8.5) | 18.5 (−7.5) | 23.6 (−4.7) | 32.0 (0.0) | 41.3 (5.2) | 48.7 (9.3) | 52.3 (11.3) | 51.2 (10.7) | 46.2 (7.9) | 36.9 (2.7) | 27.6 (−2.4) | 21.4 (−5.9) | 34.7 (1.5) |
| Mean minimum °F (°C) | −6.5 (−21.4) | −0.7 (−18.2) | 3.9 (−15.6) | 14.7 (−9.6) | 26.2 (−3.2) | 38.9 (3.8) | 45.4 (7.4) | 45.5 (7.5) | 35.2 (1.8) | 19.8 (−6.8) | 9.2 (−12.7) | 1.6 (−16.9) | −9.5 (−23.1) |
| Record low °F (°C) | −34 (−37) | −23 (−31) | −15 (−26) | 1 (−17) | 13 (−11) | 27 (−3) | 36 (2) | 32 (0) | 23 (−5) | 5 (−15) | −19 (−28) | −22 (−30) | −34 (−37) |
| Averageprecipitation inches (mm) | 7.47 (190) | 5.62 (143) | 7.22 (183) | 6.52 (166) | 6.08 (154) | 5.46 (139) | 6.92 (176) | 7.69 (195) | 8.76 (223) | 6.29 (160) | 6.17 (157) | 6.89 (175) | 81.09 (2,060) |
| Average snowfall inches (cm) | 19.2 (49) | 18.6 (47) | 18.5 (47) | 7.1 (18) | 1.4 (3.6) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.7 (1.8) | 3.9 (9.9) | 19.7 (50) | 89.1 (226) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 0.01 in) | 14.1 | 12.4 | 14.1 | 12.6 | 14.2 | 16.1 | 17.8 | 16.1 | 12.7 | 10.3 | 10.4 | 13.1 | 163.9 |
| Average snowy days(≥ 0.1 in) | 6.4 | 6.5 | 4.9 | 2.5 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 2.0 | 5.2 | 28.2 |
| Source:NOAA[15][10] | |||||||||||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
.svg)
