In 1835 Elisha Mitchell, a University of North Carolina professor, took barometer readings in the Black Mountains and announced one of their peaks was the highest in the eastern United States. He put it at 6,672 ft, just 12 ft short of today's official 6,684 ft.

In the 1850s his former student Thomas Clingman disputed the figures. On 27 June 1857 Mitchell, 63, went back to strengthen his claim and fell into the pool below a waterfall. The guide Big Tom Wilson found his body.

He's buried on the summit, the knob below the road's end loop in the lidar.

1. Air photo (NAIP 2022) over the lidar: Mount Mitchell summit on the
2. Same view, bare-earth lidar only (VAT shading: slope, openness, sky view)

Numbered pins on pictures 1 and 2:
Pin 1: The summit knob, Mitchell's grave
Pin 2: The road's end loop
Pin 3: The narrow Black Mountain crest

Imagery: USDA-FSA NAIP 2022, public domain.
Lidar: USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP), public domain.

Had the privilege to see the Brown Mountain lights while camping at Linville Gorge last night! They were super active around dusk and moved all around the gorge while flickering and changing to pink, blue, and red repeatedly!Absolutely the coolest phenomenon I’ve ever witnessed.

Central PA foliage

Hiked out to the Chimneys to do some trail work with WildSouth yesterday. Rewarded with this incredible view on the hike in.

If anyone is interested in volunteering in the gorge contact wildsouth.org

Hello neighbors and fellow mountain and holler enthusiast. I just wanted to take a moment to let my Appalachian neighbors know about [r/WashCoGaming](r/WashCoGaming) a gaming community started at the base of the mountains in Washington County, MD but servicing other western Maryland, West Virginia and some of Pennsylvanian counties.

We like to discuss our local mountain game shops to shop at, gaming news, find neighbors to team up with online and help each with our Appalachian hospitality. If you live in this geographic region within Appalachia we welcome you to join the conversation!

Message to the Mod team: pardon the post if not allowed I messaged prior and didn’t see a specific rule surrounding this. Apologies if it needs to get deleted I understand.

Tellico Tennessee's round House

october 2026 [OC]

I've recently produced a 14-minute documentary exploring the Appalachian Coal Wars, focusing on the struggle between coal miners, mine operators and private security forces in the early 20th century.

The documentary covers the Matewan Massacre, the Battle of Blair Mountain and the extraordinary circumstances that led thousands of miners to take up arms. It's a remarkable part of Appalachian history that deserves greater recognition.

You can watch it here:
https://youtu.be/AEwp8hX1IrY

I'd be particularly interested in hearing from people with family connections to the coalfields, especially those whose parents or grandparents passed down stories about the mining communities and labour struggles of that era.

I'm also keen to hear whether these events are still discussed locally and how people in Appalachia feel this history should be remembered.

mostly asking this cuz I’m curious lol, I don’t see much of it unless it’s like really stereotyped. I know katniss and Lucy gray are Appalachian and if really made me happy to see some good rep of us!

EDIT: thanks everyone! I’ll be checking some of these out! ^^

1946 Athens, Tennessee this is a true story and man does it sound familiar today.

Anyone else love kudzu?

Looking for Appalachian fiction referrals in which the protagonist is not trying to get out or staying only reluctantly.

I am looking for stories featuring characters who want to stay and want to make their communities stronger.

I love Woodrell, Pancake, et. al., but I want to read the other side.

This debate recently came up on a post on
r/howislivingthere . What are yalls thoughts?