Black Mountains (North Carolina)

The Black Mountains are a mountain range in western North Carolina, in the southeastern United States. They are part of the Blue Ridge Province of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. The Black Mountains are the highest mountains in the Eastern United States. The range takes its name from the dark appearance of the red spruce and Fraser fir trees that form a spruce-fir forest on the upper slopes which contrasts with the brown or lighter green appearance of the deciduous trees at lower elevations. The Eastern Continental Divide, which runs along the eastern Blue Ridge crest, intersects the southern tip of the Black Mountain range.
The Black Mountains are home to Mount Mitchell State Park, which protects the range's highest summits in the central section of the range. Much of the range is also protected by the Pisgah National Forest. The Blue Ridge Parkway passes along the range's southern section, and is connected to the summit of Mount Mitchell by North Carolina Highway 128. The Black Mountains are mostly located in Yancey County, although the range's southern and western extremes run along the Buncombe County line.

Geography

The Black Mountains form a J-shaped semicircle that opens to the northwest. The Blacks rise southward from the Little Crabtree Creek Valley in the north to the steep summit of Celo Knob. A few miles south of Celo, the crest drops to at Deep Gap before rising steeply again to the summit of Potato Hill in the north-central section of the range. The crest continues southward across the central section, which contains 6 of the 10 highest summits in the eastern United States, including the highest, Mount Mitchell, and the second-highest, Mount Craig. South of Mount Mitchell, the crest drops to just under at Stepp's Gap before rising again to at the summit of Mount Gibbes. On the slopes of Potato Knob, just south of Clingmans Peak, the Black Mountain crest bends northwestward across Blackstock Knob before dropping again to at Balsam Gap, where it intersects the Great Craggy Mountains to the southwest. The crest then turns northward across Point Misery and Big Butt before descending to the Cane River gap.
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. The southern face of the hook drains into Flat Creek and the north fork of the Swannanoa River which also heads to the French Broad River. The North Fork Reservoir, supplied with the ample rain caused by moisture pushing up the southern face, serves as the primary water source for the Asheville region. 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

While the crest of the Black Mountain range is just long, within these fifteen miles are 18 peaks climbing to at least above sea level. The Black Mountains rise prominently above the surrounding lower terrain. This is particularly noticeable from the range's eastern side, which rises over above the Catawba River Valley and Interstate 40, providing some impressive mountain scenery.

Mountain	Elevation	General area	Coordinates	Named after
Mount Mitchell		South-central Blacks	35.76497, −82.265152	Elisha Mitchell, professor and surveyor
Mount Craig		South-central Blacks	35.777584, −82.261759	Locke Craig, North Carolina governor
Balsam Cone		North-central Blacks	35.789705, −82.255846	Fraser fir tree, previously known as balsam fir
Cattail Peak		North-central Blacks	35.798413, −82.256502	Possibly named for mountain lions that may have once frequented the summit
Big Tom		South-central Blacks	35.779698, −82.259854	Thomas "Big Tom" Wilson, legendary bear hunter and mountain guide
Mount Gibbes		Southern Blacks	35.739124, −82.285235	Robert Wilson Gibbes, surveyor
Clingmans Peak		Southern Blacks	35.73504, −82.285986	Thomas Lanier Clingman, politician and surveyor
Potato Hill		North-central Blacks	35.801537, −82.25314
Potato Knob		Southern Blacks	35.729955, −82.291246	The mountain's shape, resembling an upright potato
Celo Knob		Northern Blacks	35.852423, −82.248678	Possibly the Cherokee word selu, meaning "corn."
Mount Hallback		Southern Blacks	35.748951, −82.275613
Blackstock Knob		Southern Blacks	35.738063, −82.318615	Nehemiah Blackstock, surveyor
Gibbs Mountain		Northern Blacks	35.840947, −82.247985	Methodist circuit rider who frequented the area in the early 19th century
Winter Star Mountain		Northern Blacks	35.817668, −82.249273
Big Butt		Western Blacks	35.786803, −82.346561	Also known as Yeates Knob. The nearest peak to the south is known as Little Butt.
The Pinnacle		Southern Blacks	35.704308, −82.275411

Geology

The Black Mountains consist primarily of Precambrian gneiss and schists formed over a billion years ago from primordial sea sediments. The mountains themselves were formed roughly 200–400 million years ago during the Alleghenian orogeny, when the collision of two continental plates thrust what is now the Appalachian Mountains upward to form a large plateau. Weathering and minor geologic events in subsequent periods carved out the mountains.
During the last ice age, approximately 20,000–16,000 years ago, glaciers did not advance into Southern Appalachia, but the change in temperatures drastically changed the forests in the region. A tree-less tundra likely existed in the Black Mountains and surrounding mountains in elevations above. Spruce-fir forests dominated the lower elevations during this period, while hardwoods "fled" to warmer refuges in the coastal plains. As the ice sheets began retreating 16,000 years ago and temperatures started to rise, the hardwoods returned to the river valleys and lower slopes, and the spruce-fir forest retreated to the higher elevations. Today, the spruce-fir forest atop the Black Mountains is one of ten or so spruce-fir "islands" remaining in the mountains of Southern Appalachia.

Plants and wildlife

The forests of the Black Mountains are typically divided into three zones based on altitude: the spruce-fir forest, the northern hardwoods, and the Appalachian hardwoods. The southern Appalachian spruce-fir forest, though sometimes referred to as "boreal" or "Canadian," is a unique plant community endemic to a few high peaks of the Southern Appalachians. In fact, it is more akin to a high elevation cloud forest. It is dominated by red spruce and Fraser fir, and coats the elevations above. The northern hardwoods, which consist primarily of beech, yellow birch, and buckeye, thrive between. The more diverse Appalachian hardwoods, which include yellow poplar and various species of hickory, oak, and maple, dominate the slopes and stream valleys below. Pine forests, consisting chiefly of Table Mountain pine, pitch pine, and Virginia pine, are found on the drier south-facing slopes. mountain paper birch, which is rare in North Carolina, grows sporadically on the slopes of Mount Mitchell.
Wildlife in the Black Mountains is typical of the Appalachian highlands. Mammals include black bears, white-tailed deer, raccoons, river otters, minks, bobcats, and the endangered northern flying squirrel. Bird species include the wild turkey, the northern saw-whet owl, and the pileated woodpecker, although peregrine falcons and various species of hawk are known to nest in the upper elevations. Brook trout, which are more typical of northern latitudes, are found in the streams at the base of the Black Mountains.

History

Prehistory

have likely been hunting in the Black Mountains for thousands of years. At Swannanoa Gap, just south of the range, archaeologists have uncovered evidence of habitation dating to the Archaic period, the Woodland period, and the Mississippian period. The Mississippian-period village of Joara was located near the town of Morganton to the southeast.
The Hernando de Soto expedition, which was attempting to travel from the Florida coast to the Pacific Ocean, is believed to have passed through the North Toe River valley in May 1540, and thus would have included the first Europeans to see the Black Mountains. An expedition led by Juan Pardo probably crossed the Blue Ridge at Swannanoa Gap in October 1567. Both expeditions spent considerable time at Joara.

Early settlement

For much of the 18th century, the Black Mountains were a hunting ground on the eastern fringe of Cherokee territory. By 1785, however, the Cherokee had signed away ownership of the Black Mountains to the United States, and Euro-American settlers moved into the Cane and South Toe valleys shortly thereafter. The early settlers farmed the river valleys and sold animal furs, ginseng, tobacco, liquor, and excess crops at markets in nearby Asheville. The early farmers also brought large herds of cattle and hogs, which thrived in the valleys and mountain areas.
In 1789, French botanist André Michaux, who had been sent to America by the King of France to collect exotic plant specimens, made his first excursion into the Southern Appalachian Mountains, which included a brief trip to the Blacks. Michaux returned to the Blacks in August 1794, and collected several plant specimens that thrive above. Michaux's findings, published in the early 19th century, were among the first to bring attention to the diversity and significance of the plants of Southern Appalachia.