MITCHELL'S PEAK (MOUNT MITCHELL)

"The first effort to measure the height of the Black Mountains was made in 1835 by Professor Elisha Mitchell, professor of mathematics and chemistry in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Mr. Mitchell was a native of Connecticut, born in Washington, Litchfield County, in 1793; gradu- ated at Yale, ordained a Presbyterian minister, and was for a time state surveyor; and became a professor at Chapel Hill in 1818.  He first ascertained and published the fact that the Black Mountains are the highest land east of the Rocky Mountains.  In 1844 he visited the locality again.  Measurements were subsequently made by professor Guyot and by Senator Clingman.  One of the peaks was named for the senator (the one next in height to Mitchell is described as Clingman on the state map), and a dispute arose as to whether Mitchell had really visited and measured the highest peak....The estimates of altitudes made by the three explorers named differed considerably.  The height now fixed for Mt. Mitchell is 6711; that of Mt. Washington [NH] is 6285.  There are twelve peaks in this range higher than Mt. Washington, and if we add those in the Great Smoky Mountains which overtop it, there are some twenty in this State higher than the granite giant of New Hampshire. (1888, Warner, Charles D. On Horseback, pp. 93, 94)

"In order to verify his statement, Professor Mitchell (then in his sixty-fourth year) made a third ascent in June, 1857.  He was alone, and went up from the Swannanoa side.  He did not return. No anxiety was felt for two or three days, as he was a good mountaineer, and it was supposed he had crossed the mountain and made his way out by the Caney River.  But when several days passed without tidings of him, a search party was formed....They explored the mountain in all directions unsuccessfully.  At length Big Tom [Wilson] separated himself from his companions...and soon struck the trail of the wanderer, and following it, discovered Mitchell's body lying in a pool at the foot of a rocky precipice some thirty feet high. It was evident that Mitchell, making his way along the ridge in darkness or fog, had fallen off.  It was the ninth day of his disappearance, but in the pure mountain air the body had suffered no change....There was some talk of burying him on the mountain, but the friends decided otherwise, and the remains, with much difficulty, were got down to Asheville and there interred. (1888, Warner, Charles D. On Horseback, pp. 94,95)

"Some years afterwards, I believe at the instance of a society of scientists, it was resolved to transport the body to the summit of Mt. Mitchell; for the tragic death of the explorer had forever settled in the popular mind the name of the mountain.  The task was not easy.  A road had to be cut, over which a sledge could be hauled, and the hardy mountaineers who undertook the removal were three days in reaching the summit with their burden.  The remains were accompanied by a considerable concourse, and the last rites on the top were participated in by a hundred or more scientists and prominent men from different parts of the State.  Such a strange cortege had never before broken the silence of this lonely wilderness, nor was ever burial more impressive than this wild interment above the clouds." (1888, Warner, Charles D. On Horseback, pp. 95, 96)

"One can easily walk to the top of Mount Mitchell, but it will be well, if you mean to stay, to have your blankets and provisions for the night taken up on horseback.  The best way is to let the guide go ahead, and then loiter on as you please, the hoof-marks affording a sure protection against getting lost.  With a long staff you can cross the rushing trout stream dry shod on the projecting rocks, after which you begin a most joyous ascent into the clouds. (1913, Morley, Margaret. The Carolina Mountains, pp. 306, 307)

"The lower part of the mountain is covered with hardwood trees, the path leading past a tulip tree that twenty years ago measured over thirty-three feet in circumference....About three miles up, you pass through what is known as the beech nursery, a level bench grown with small beeches where grass and flowers cover the floor, a friendly vestibule to the dark forest that lies above. For a little beyond here you enter the balsams, and it is like entering another world, for in the balsam groves no other trees grow, and the young trees and the bushes that so lighten other forests are entirely lacking here....The path is wet and muddy in places, and also steep, but at last you pass up out of the dark balsams into a sunny meadow where blue eyebrights look up from the grass, and from which a stony trail bordered with rose-bay leads through stunted firs to the open top, where a monument standing alone on the very summit of the mountain gives a feeling of solemnity to the place.  It was erected here in 1888 to the memory, as the legend on the side reads, of the Rev. Elisha Mitchell, D.D., who after being for thirty-nine years a professor in the University of North Carolina, lost his life in the scientific exploration of this mountain, in the sixty-fourth year of his age, June 27th, 1857." (1914, Morley, Margaret. The Carolina Mountains, pp. 307-309.)

"Sarah awoke before dawn.  She started up, and hurried to the edge of the precipice.  She was upon the highest point of land east of the Mississippi.  She knew that the Atlantic coast and the valley of the Mississippi were stretched out below her, but the earth had sunk wholly out of sight; she stood alone in the sky.  Beneath her, from one horizon to the other, rolled an ocean of liquid trembling hues.  It was the very birthplace of color.  She was above it, in pure ether.  She turned at last, and found the Judge standing beside her.  He was a homely, insignificant little man, but there was something in his presence not out of keeping with the place and the moment. (Davis, Rebecca Harding. "By-Paths in the Mountains," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 61, issue 363, August 1880, p.365.)

"This is Mitchell's grave,' he said presently, pointing to a wind-blown patch of grass upon the topmost height.  'I should be glad to think that I too should so rest at last alone with God.'" (Davis, Rebecca Harding. "By-Paths in the Mountains," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 61, issue 363, August 1880, p. 365.)

From Mount Mitchell we saw that we were upon a center from whence radiated several mountain chains. To the south we could see even as far as the Cumberland line, and could readily discern the “Bald Mountain,” and our old friend the Smoky; while nearer, in the same direction, we noted the Balsam range. Sweeping inward from the north-east coast were the long ridges of the Alleghanies; on the north the chain of the Black culminated in a fantastic rock pile; while on the south the ridges of Craggy once more stood revealed. To the east we could overlook the plains of North and South Carolina; on the north-east we saw Table Rock and the “ Hawk Bill,” twin mountains, piercing the clouds; while beyond them rose the abrupt “Grandfather Mountain,” and the bluff of the Roan. On the south were the high peaks of the Alleghanies,
the Pinnacles, Rocky Knob, Gray Beard, Bear Wallow, and Sugar Loaf. Another hour and a half of climbing, then dashing through a clearing, we suddenly saw above us a crag two hundred feet high, with a stone-strewn path leading up it. Our horses sprang to their risky task; they rushed up the ascent,—slipped, caught against the edges of the stones, snorted with fear, then laid back their ears and gave a final leap, and we were on Mitchell’s High Peak, utterly above Alleghanies, Blue Ridge, or Mount Washington. Our horses’ ears brushed the clouds. In a few moments we were at Mitchell’s grave." p. 549 King, Edward. The Great South: Among the Mountains of Western North Carolina Scribner's Monthly 7 (1874): 513-44. [MOA- Cornell,  FULL TEXT]