Grandfather Mountain

GRANDFATHER MOUNTAIN

"The Grandfather mountain, in the extreme southern corner of Watauga county, is the highest point of the Blue Ridge. The elevation is 5,897 feet, and being 35 miles in an air-line distant from the loftier summits of the Black mountains, and fifteen miles from Roan, over-topping as it does all the nearer peaks by an altitude of nearly 1,000 feet, it commands an almost limitless view of mountain country. It merits the name of Grandfather, for its rocks are of the Archaean age, and the oldest out-croppings on the globe. The two reasons for its name are ascribed; one from the profile of a man's face seen from the Watauga river; the other from the resemblance of the rhododendrons, when clad in ice and snow, to the white, flowing beard of a patriarch." (1883, Zeigler, Wilbur & Ben Grosscup. The Heart of the Alleghanies, p. 261)

"And we of a later age, seeing the same wild gardens still unspoiled, can appreciate the almost religious fervor of these early botanists, as of Michaux, for example, who, in 1794, ascending the peak of Grandfather, broke out in song: 'Monte au sommet de la plus haut montagne de tout l'Amerique Septentrionale, chant with mon compagnon-guide l'hymn de Marsellois, et crie, 'Vive la Liberte et la Republique Francais!'" (1913. Kephart, Horace. Our Southern Highlanders, p. 56.)

"Of course Michaux was wildly mistaken in thinking Grandfather 'the highest mountain in all North America.' It is far from being even the highest of the Appalachians..." (1913. Kephart, Horace. Our Southern Highlanders, p. 56.)