Whenever the weather turns a little extreme at my house, whether it be extremely hot or cold, I find myself thinking about the not so distant King of the Black Mountains, Mount Mitchell. When it is 100 degrees at home and fraught with humidity, I visit the online current conditions site at Mt. Mitchell to dream about 60 degrees and a breeze. A visit there in July cannot be beat. But it is odd that today while we have 30 degree weather, I find my mind still wandering through the Black Mountains and taking a virtual tour on the Internet while thinking about the reported 13 degrees with a 20 mile per hour wind at the highest peak east of the Mississippi. I always have to fight the urge to get in the car and go there. A different world, only two hours away. But instead, I must leave the job to the two souls minding the mountain, Big Tom Wilson and Elisha Mitchell.
When the UNC professor, chemist, and geologist, Elisha Michell first surveyed the area in in the late 1830's, Big Tom Wilson was a young teenager. Wilson would later accompany Mitchell on his 1844 ascent as he worked so diligently to determine which of the Black Mountain's peaks was the tallest east of the Mississippi. Big Tom was that magical mountain man mixture of legend and reality. He was a well known and respected tracker as well as gamekeeper for the large tract of virgin wilderness known as the Murchison Preserve. He and his wife lived in a lop-sided cabin where chickens and other animals had free range. He was six feet two inches, which was tall for a man of his time, but with a slender frame that defied his nickname. He had magical, honest blue eyes. In his 1888 book, Charles Dudley Warner says "Big Tom's most striking attribute was his spiritual vitality, not his physicality." He was a "man of native simplicity and mild manners."
Mitchell's careful measurements of the mountain would later be challenged by politician and former student, Thomas Clingman. Clingman incorrectly insisted another peak was the tallest (current Mt. Gibbs). This set off the Clingman-Mitchell controversy and sent Elisha back to the mountain in 1851, no longer a spring chicken in his 60's, to verify his previous endeavors. He became lost in the night and slipped and fell over a waterfall. After eleven days of Mitchell missing, it was big Tom who wisely used his tracking skills to recreate the path a lost man in the dark may take, and he found Mitchell's body floating in the pond below a waterfall, where he had slipped on some moss and fallen. It was only right that Big Tom should be the one to discover his hiking companion. Mitchell's watch had stopped at 8:36.
Mt. Mitchell is rightfully named for the brave man who never gave up on his quest to prove it was indeed the highest. Big Tom also has a mountain in the Black chain bearing his name. Today there is a re-creation of Big Tom's cabin on Mt. Mitchell that can be visited. Elisha Mitchell was originally buried in Asheville, but one year later, men hacked their way for three days through the mountain wilderness so that his resting place would be on the top of Mt. Mitchell. His coffin was placed on mountain rock and then covered with more smaller rocks. Those who traveled to the top of his mountain were supposed to carry a small rock with them to place on his grave as a token of respect and to build a momument to him. But the mountain is the real monument to both Mitchell and Big Tom. To quote Warner "There was never a burial more impressive than this wild internment above the clouds. It is the most majestic, and the most lonesome grave on earth." I think that is exactly what Mitchell would have wanted.... along with a few visits by Big Tom.
Big Tom pays respect to Elisha's grave site. Big Tom lived into his 80's.
Ohhhh Elisha. A man of letters and mountains.
The pool where Mitchell's body was found by Big Tom. Big Tom is sitting to the right of the waterfall. This waterfall is on private property and hard to find.
Big Tom mountain in the foreground of the Black Mountain Range.
I love this painting by Asheville artist, Ian Brownlee, Elisha Mitchell's Funeral.
"The wild internment above the clouds."
When the UNC professor, chemist, and geologist, Elisha Michell first surveyed the area in in the late 1830's, Big Tom Wilson was a young teenager. Wilson would later accompany Mitchell on his 1844 ascent as he worked so diligently to determine which of the Black Mountain's peaks was the tallest east of the Mississippi. Big Tom was that magical mountain man mixture of legend and reality. He was a well known and respected tracker as well as gamekeeper for the large tract of virgin wilderness known as the Murchison Preserve. He and his wife lived in a lop-sided cabin where chickens and other animals had free range. He was six feet two inches, which was tall for a man of his time, but with a slender frame that defied his nickname. He had magical, honest blue eyes. In his 1888 book, Charles Dudley Warner says "Big Tom's most striking attribute was his spiritual vitality, not his physicality." He was a "man of native simplicity and mild manners."
Mitchell's careful measurements of the mountain would later be challenged by politician and former student, Thomas Clingman. Clingman incorrectly insisted another peak was the tallest (current Mt. Gibbs). This set off the Clingman-Mitchell controversy and sent Elisha back to the mountain in 1851, no longer a spring chicken in his 60's, to verify his previous endeavors. He became lost in the night and slipped and fell over a waterfall. After eleven days of Mitchell missing, it was big Tom who wisely used his tracking skills to recreate the path a lost man in the dark may take, and he found Mitchell's body floating in the pond below a waterfall, where he had slipped on some moss and fallen. It was only right that Big Tom should be the one to discover his hiking companion. Mitchell's watch had stopped at 8:36.
Mt. Mitchell is rightfully named for the brave man who never gave up on his quest to prove it was indeed the highest. Big Tom also has a mountain in the Black chain bearing his name. Today there is a re-creation of Big Tom's cabin on Mt. Mitchell that can be visited. Elisha Mitchell was originally buried in Asheville, but one year later, men hacked their way for three days through the mountain wilderness so that his resting place would be on the top of Mt. Mitchell. His coffin was placed on mountain rock and then covered with more smaller rocks. Those who traveled to the top of his mountain were supposed to carry a small rock with them to place on his grave as a token of respect and to build a momument to him. But the mountain is the real monument to both Mitchell and Big Tom. To quote Warner "There was never a burial more impressive than this wild internment above the clouds. It is the most majestic, and the most lonesome grave on earth." I think that is exactly what Mitchell would have wanted.... along with a few visits by Big Tom.
Big Tom pays respect to Elisha's grave site. Big Tom lived into his 80's.
Ohhhh Elisha. A man of letters and mountains.
The pool where Mitchell's body was found by Big Tom. Big Tom is sitting to the right of the waterfall. This waterfall is on private property and hard to find.
Big Tom mountain in the foreground of the Black Mountain Range.
I love this painting by Asheville artist, Ian Brownlee, Elisha Mitchell's Funeral."The wild internment above the clouds."
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