Roan Mountain
| Roan Mountain | ||
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 Roan Mountain as seen from the northwest from Grassy Ridge Bald |
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| height | 1916 m | |
| location | Northeast Tennessee , USA | |
| Mountains | Roan Highlands (Unaka Mountains) | |
| Dominance | 30.2 km → Celo Knob | |
| Notch height | 1063 m | |
| Coordinates | 36 ° 6 '23 " N , 82 ° 6' 37" W | |
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Roan Mountain is a mountain in the Roan-Unake Mountain Range of the southern Appalachians , located in the southeastern United States . The mountain is one of the main tourist attractions of the area as it is home to one of the most densely vegetated coniferous forests of the southern Appalachians, the largest rhododendron deposit in the world and the longest stretch of grass meadow in the Appalachians. The Cherokee National Forest and the Pisgah National Forest meet at the highest point of the mountain. The Roan Mountain State Park stretches across the northern slope of the mountain. The Appalachian Trail leads over a large part of the mountain ridge and the Roan High Knob shelter over, the highest Rifugio on the entire 2,174 Miles long trail is.
structure
Roan Mountain represents much of the Roan Highlands, a 20 mile long massif that stretches from Big Rock Creek in the west to US Route 19 in the east and bordering Tennessee ( Carter County ) and North Carolina ( Mitchell County ) leads along. The Yellow Mountain and Hump Mountain at the north end are part of the Roan Highlands, but are usually not included in the Roan Mountain itself.
Roan Mountain consists of five peaks and is roughly divided into two sections by the Carver's Gap. The first section - consisting of Roan High Bluff and Roan High Knob - lies south of Carver's Gap and is dominated by a thick coniferous forest. This part of the Roan Mountains looks somewhat like a two-humped camel , with Roan High Bluff and Roan High Knob representing the two "humps". Tollhouse Gap lies between the two peaks and is home to the world's largest rhododendron forests.
The second section - known as Grassy Ridge - is north of Carver's Gap and is the longest grassy meadow ( grassy soon ) in the Appalachians. A grass meadow ( grassy bald ) is a type of highland meadow that is characterized by dense grass and few trees. Grassy Ridge consists of the three peaks Round Bald, Jane Bald and Grassy Ridge Bald. The bare grass meadow extends across all three peaks, approximately 7 miles and 4 km².
After the Appalachian Trail runs west over Iron Mountain and Hughes Gap, it climbs the northern slope of the Roan Mountains to Tollhouse Gap. There the trail bends east and runs over Roan High Knob, Carver's Gap, Grassy Ridge, Yellow Mountain, and Hump Mountain, before dropping to US Route 19 and the White Rocks Mountain area. In the area between the slopes of Old Black Mountain in the Great Smoky Mountains (150 miles south) to Mount Washington in the White Mountains of New Hampshire (1,500 miles north), Roan Mountain is the only point on the Appalachian Trail that passes over the 6,000 feet mark.
Summit on Roan Mountain
Roan Mountain consists of five peaks:
Roan High Bluff on the west side of the mountain is 1,910 meters high and is entirely in North Carolina. In contrast to its sister peak, High Bluff rises steeply and sharply to its summit point, then drops rapidly 300 meters on the north side. The summit of the High Bluff is closed to the public, but the observation platform six meters below offers a 180 ° view of the northwestern valley. The platform is accessible on the Cloudland Trail, which leads up from the Tollhouse Gap.
Roan High Knob is the highest point on Roan Mountain as it rises to 1,916 m between Carver's Gap and Tollhouse Gap. High Knob is the highest point in Tennessee outside of the Great Smoky Mountains and the 17th highest mountain in the eastern United States. The Appalachian Trail runs over the western slope of High Knobs, with a well-marked side path leading to the summit. The Roan High Knob refuge is a few meters from the summit.
Round Bald rises roughly in the middle of the Roan Massif at the western end of Grassy Ridge. The Appalachian Trail, from which one can overlook Carver's Gap, leads over the summit, which has an altitude of 1,775 m. The hiking trail follows the course of the state border along the sparse tree line on the northwest slope before it emerges on the bare top, which offers a panoramic view.
Jane Bald is a small hill between Round Bald and Grassy Ridge Bald with a height of 1,773 m. Local legend ascribes the name to a woman named Jane who died of food poisoning while crossing the mountain. The bare area on Jane Bald is more volatile than that of its two neighbors and is partly overgrown with rhododendrons. Following the state border, the Appalachian Trail also leads over this summit.
Grassy Ridge Soon the center of Grassy Ridge dominates with a height of 1,886 m. At this altitude, it is also one of the highest bare grassy meadows ( grassy balds ) in the Appalachians (Black Balsam Knob, southwest of Asheville , is a few meters taller). The bare area at the top of the mountain extends over several hundred hectares and is only interrupted by small groups of bushes and trees. The Appalachian Trail runs over the northern slope of the mountain, but numerous side paths (mostly marked) lead to the summit, which is lined with a pile of stones and a bronze plaque. The plaque is dedicated to a local highland farmer named Cornelius Rex Peake. Also on this summit, which is almost entirely in North Carolina, the hiker is offered a panoramic view, with Grandfather Mountain clearly visible in the east and Black Mountains in the south.
Yellow Mountain and Hump Mountain , at the northern end of the Roan Highlands, are 1,652 m and 1,703 m high and are both crossed by the Appalachian Trail.
geology
Among the oldest rocks that make up Roan Mountain, there is a kind of metamorphic rock , the Cranberry gneiss called. This rock was formed by marine sediments over a billion years ago and is one of the oldest in the United States. Another metamorphic rock, Roan Gneiss , was formed about 800 million years ago. An igneous rock called Beech Granite , which is also commonly found in Roan Mountain, is estimated to be 700 million years old. The mountains themselves were formed between 200 and 400 million years ago during the Alleghenian Orogeny , when the North American and African continental plates collided and pushed up the rock.
history
The first visitors to Roan Mountain were Indians. A Catawba legend tells of a great battle with the Cherokee on the mountain, which colored the rhododendron blood red and left parts of the mountain treeless. Although it cannot be verified whether this battle really took place, some Indian settlements have already been found at the foot of the mountain. The Cherokee settlement of Old Fields was also near what is now Elizabethton, Tennessee.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, the area was frequently visited by botanists to collect plants. Among them was John Bartram, who crossed the Roan Highlands in the late 1730s while studying the botanical makeup of what is now the southeastern United States. Andre Micheaux followed in 1794 and discovered some alpine species that are rarely found outside of New England and Canada. In 1799, John Fraser explored Roan Mountain and collected rhododendron species. He also described the Fraser fir, which now bears his name. Other early researchers were e.g. B. Elisha Mitchell, after whom Mount Mitchell is named, and Asa Gray, a Harvard botanist.
American War of Independence
In 1780, in the middle of the American Revolutionary War , British General Charles Cornwallis opened his invasion of the southern colonies with the capture of Charleston , South Carolina and a victory over American troops at Camden . Since South Carolina seemed safe, Cornwallis marched north toward Charlotte , North Carolina . During the march, Cornwallis sent a group of loyalists under the command of Major Patrick Ferguson to raid western Carolina. To oppose Ferguson's forces, a group of frontier people from the mountains that now make up eastern Tennessee gathered at Fort Watauga , in what is now Elizabethton . This ragged group of frontier people known as the Overmountain Men crossed the Roan Highlands on their way to the other side of the Blue Ridge Mountains , where they fought and defeated Ferguson's men in the Battle of Kings Mountain . While most of the men were returning home, some Overmountain Men turned south to join Daniel Morgan's forces and work together to achieve the American victory at Cowpens in 1781.
Before the revolution, gunpowder was hardly made in the United States. During the colonial era, most of the gunpowder came from England. In October 1777 the British Parliament banned the export of gunpowder to the rebellious colonies. To feed the Overmountain Men, Mary Patton and her husband made 500 pounds of black powder at their Gap Creek Powder Mill in what is now Elizabethton. On the first night of their march from Sycamore Shoals , the Overmountain Men stashed the Pattons' gunpowder in a dry cave called Shelving Rock to protect it from the rain. Shelving Rock is located on Highway TN-143 just outside of Roan Mountain State Park.
Ore and wood extraction
Mining may have taken place in the Sink Hole Mine as early as the late 16th century, possibly by early Spanish explorers under the orders of Juan Pardo. A local Indian legend that reports "white men on mules who came from the south during the summer and took a white metal with them" may have a connection with the theory of early European presence. In 1826, Josh, Ben, and Jake Perkins - three brothers from Crab Orachard, Tennessee who may be fleeing an arrest warrant - were looking for American ginseng on the North Carolina side of Roan Mountain when they saw iron ore deposits near Cranberry Creek. This led to the discovery of a massive iron ore pen called the Cranberry Vein and the establishment of the Cranberry Mine, which mined ore for nearly a century until it was forced to close due to the Great Depression. In the late 19th century, the timber industry was booming, largely due to the invention of the chainsaw and the wooden train. When the forests in the lowlands were cleared, the loggers moved on to more mountainous areas. On Roan Mountain, a steam engine was set up in the valley (which is still called the "Engine Gap" today) between Round Bald and Jane Bald to move the timber that was felled on the Tennessee side to the sawmills on the North Carolina side . A large log gutter was built between Burbank (near Hughes Gap) and the village of Roan Mountain. Extensive deforestation erosion is believed to have played a role in the severe flooding that destroyed much of the area in 1901.
The Cloudland Hotel
Tourists have been visiting Roan Mountain since the mid-19th century. In 1857, two visitors described their visit in an article for New Harper's Weekly:
- The view in all directions is not limited by anything other than the curvature of the earth and the haziness of the atmosphere. At first glance it looks as if you are looking at a huge blue ocean, whose monstrous surf, once bouncing and jumping in wild chaos, has suddenly been stopped by a higher power.
Such experiences undoubtedly also led former Civil War general and mining magnate John T. Wilder to build a 20-room spruce log cabin on Roan Mountain in 1877. The cabin was built in the area of what is now Tollhouse Gap, between Roan High Knob and Roan High Bluff. Quickly discovering the value of Roan Mountain as a summer retreat from the hot, humid plains and crowded cities, Wilder began building a much larger hotel at the top of the Roan Mountains in the early 1880s. In order to be able to transport materials to the construction site (and in order to be able to supply the hotel after completion), Wilder built a road over Carver's Gap. He also built a house and the Roan Mountain Inn in what is now the village of Roan Mountain, Tennessee. The Cloudland Hotel, as it was called, was completed in 1885. The hotel was a few hundred yards from the spruce hut that preceded it.
Access
State Route TN-143 / NC-261, which connects the villages of Roan Mountain, Tennessee and Bakersville, North Carolina, runs over the northeast slope and crosses the mountain at Carver's Gap. The Appalachian Trail, which runs at a 90 ° angle to the road, is accessible from a small parking lot at Carver's Gap. To the east (across the street from the parking lot), the Appalachian Trail runs over Round Bald and then continues over Grassy Ridge. To the west the path curves around Roan High Knob and after about a mile meets Tollhouse Gap, where it turns north. A paved road connecting Carver's Gap to Tollhouse Gap crosses the south side of Roan High Knob. The road, which is closed in winter, leads to the starting point of the Cloudland Trail, which crosses the Rhododendron Gardens and then climbs the western slope of Roan High Bluff to the observation deck at the summit. The path is a bit longer than a mile. The Roan High Knob Refuge, near the top of Roan High Knob, can accommodate 15 hikers. The shelter is maintained by the Tennessee Eastman Hiking and Canoeing Club.
Web links
- Roan Mountain State Park Official Website (in English )
- Roan Mountain on Peakbagger.com (English)