Mount Mitchell Attakulla in Cherokee [ 3 ] is the highest peak of the Appalachian Mountains and the highest peak in mainland North America east of the Mississippi River. Mount Mitchell's elevation is 6, feet 2, m above sea level.
The peak is the highest mountain in the United States east of the Mississippi River , [ 4 ] [ 5 ] and the highest in all of eastern North America south of the Arctic Cordillera. The nearest higher peaks are in the Black Hills of South Dakota and the highland foothills of Colorado. The mountain's topographic isolation is calculated from the nearest discernible single higher point: Lone Butte , which is 1, miles 1, km away in southeastern Colorado.
Mount Mitchell was the highest mountain of the United States from until the Louisiana Purchase in when Mount Elbert became the highest mountain claimed by the United States. Mount Mitchell was also the most isolated peak in the United States from until the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in when Mount Whitney became the most isolated.
The Cherokee people , who long occupied this area as part of their homeland, called the mountain Attakulla. They later named it after Elisha Mitchell , a professor at the University of North Carolina , who first explored the Black Mountain region in He determined that the height of the range exceeded by several hundred feet that of Mount Washington in New Hampshire. The latter had been commonly thought at the time to be the highest point in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains.
Mitchell fell to his death at nearby Mitchell Falls in , where he had returned to verify his earlier measurements. The foot 12 m stone observation tower on the summit was torn down in late A new observation deck was constructed and opened to visitors in January Mount Mitchell was formed during the Precambrian when marine deposits were metamorphosed into gneiss and schist. These metasedimentary rocks were later uplifted during the Alleghenian orogeny.
