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Summit Observation Deck on Mount Mitchell
About this photograph
- Date created
- July 18, 2006
- Location
- Mount Mitchell, Yancey County, North Carolina
- License
- This photograph copyright ©2006. Terms of use
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This is the Summit Observation Deck on Mount Mitchell. Mount Mitchell is the highest peak in eastern North America, towering at 6,684 feet. It is named after Elisha Mitchell, a University of North Carolina professor who returned to the mountain in 1857 to confirm his previous measurement of its height and ended up falling to his death at a place now known as Mitchell Falls. The mountain is part of the Black Mountain chain. It has eroded less than the surrounding peaks due to the igneous and metamorphic rocks that cover it, and therefore stands taller today.
The forty-foot tall Observation Deck seen was torn down recently in 2006 and is to be replaced by a shorter tower, which is to be completed by summer of 2008.
