Mount Mitchell and the Black Mountains: An Environmental History of the Highest Peaks in Eastern America

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Description

Every year, thousands of tourists discuss with Mount Mitchell, the most prominent feature of North Carolina’s Black Mountain range and the highest peak in the eastern United States. From Native Americans and early explorers to land speculators and conservationists, people have long been drawn to this rugged region. Timothy Silver explores the long and complicated history of the Black Mountains, drawing on both the historical record and his experience as a backpacker and fly fisherman. He chronicles the geological and environmental forces that created this intriguing landscape, then traces its history of environmental change and human intervention from the days of Indian-European contact to nowadays.

Among the many tales Silver recounts is that of Elisha Mitchell, the renowned geologist and University of North Carolina professor for whom Mount Mitchell is called, who fell to his death there in 1857. But nature’s stories–of forest fires, chestnut blight, competition among plants and animals, insect invasions, and, most recently, airborne toxins and acid rain–are also a part of Silver’s narrative, making it the first history of the Appalachians wherein the flora and fauna gets equal time with human history. It is just by understanding the dynamic between these two forces, Silver says, that we will be able to begin to offer protection to the Black Mountains for future generations.

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