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 Mount Mitchell State Park - Burnsville, North Carolina
N 35° 45.877 W 082° 15.825
17S E 385760 N 3958577
The tallest mountain peak East of the Mississippi River is Mt. Mitchell, in North Carolina.
Waymark Code: WM9AC0
Location: North Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 07/21/2010
Views: 23
Located along the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway at mile marker 355.4 is the entrance to Mt. Mitchell State Park. The mountain top itself has the distinction of being the tallest mountain East of the Mississippi at 6,684 feet above sea level.
The park has 1,855 acres of land preserved with hiking trails, a museum, restaurant, gift shop, and a new observation deck at the summit.
The park is named after a Dr. Elisha Mitchell, a scientist and professor at the University of North Carolina who attempted to confirm that Mount Mitchell is the highest peak east of the Mississippi.
Park hours:
November-February, 8 a.m.-6 p.m.
March and October, 8 a.m.-7 p.m.
April and September, 8 a.m.-8 p.m.
May-August, 8 a.m.-9 p.m.
Closed Christmas Day
The park itself is free, but there is a charge for camping and renting shelters.
Park Type: Wayside, day use or overnight
Activities:
There is a museum, a gift shop, restaurant, camping and hiking. The summit is now wheelchair accessable. Overnight hikers must register.
Park Fees: Not listed
Background:
"Long before it was a State Park, Mount Mitchell was a popular tourist destination. In the 1920s, after the logging operations ceased on the mountain, the former logging railroad from the nearby town of Black Mountain was converted into a tourist train. Three years later, the rails were removed, and the rail bed became a motor toll road. For more than a decade, tourists visited the area along this route, until the construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway put the toll road out of business."
"Blue Ridge Belt - This mountainous region is composed of rocks from over one billion to about one-half billion years old. This complex mixture of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rock has been repeatedly squeezed, fractured, faulted and folded. The Blue Ridge belt is well known for its deposits of feldspar, mica and quartz-basic materials used in the ceramic, paint and electronic industries. Olivine is mined for use as a refactory material and foundry molding sand."
Date Established?: 1915
Link to Park: [Web Link]
Additional Entrance Points: Not Listed
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