Each year, thousands of tourists visit 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 today.
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 named, 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 part of Silver's
narrative, making it the first history of the Appalachians in which
the natural world gets equal time with human history. It is only by
understanding the dynamic between these two forces, Silver says,
that we can begin to protect the Black Mountains for future
generations.