Mount Mitchell

Mount Mitchell, western North Carolina.

Mount Mitchell, highest peak in North Carolina and in the United States east of the Mississippi River, reaching an elevation of 6,684 feet (2,037 metres). It is located in Yancey county, in the western part of the state, about 20 miles (30 km) northeast of Asheville in the Black Mountains. The peak, covered with a mantle of hardwoods, pine, spruce, and balsam, is within Mount Mitchell State Park and Pisgah National Forest. Known by the Cherokee as Attakulla and formerly called Black Dome, it was renamed for a University of North Carolina professor, Elisha Mitchell, who in 1835 surveyed it as the highest point in the eastern United States. In 1857 Mitchell fell to his death on the mountain and was buried at its top.