Appalachian Summit

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1. The Whole World Mountains

 

 

 

Native Americans have inhabited the Appalachian Summit area for thousands of years.  On the eve of European contact, the inhabitants were the ancestors of the people who came to be called Cherokee.

 

Cherokee –

The earth is a great island floating in a sea of water, and suspended at each of the four cardinal points by a cord hanging from the sky vault, which is of solid rock. . . .

When all was water, the animals were above in Galun’lati, beyond the arch; but it was very much crowded, and they were wanting more room.  They wondered what was below the water, and at last Dayu-ni’si, “Beaver’s Grandchild”, the little Water-beetle, offered to go and see what it could learn.  It darted in every direction over the surface of the water, but could find no place to rest.  Then it dived to the bottom and came up with some soft mud, which began to grow and spread on every side until it became the island which we call earth. . . .

At first the earth was flat and very soft and wet.  The animals were anxious to get down, and sent out different birds to see if it was yet dry, but they found no place to alight and came back to Galun’lati.  At last it seemed to be time, and they sent out the Buzzard and told him to go and make ready for them.  This was the Great Buzzard, the father of all the buzzards we see now.  He flew over the earth, low down near the ground, and it was still soft.  When he reached the Cherokee country, he was tired, and his wings began to flap and strike the ground, and wherever they struck the earth there was a valley, and where they turned up again there was a mountain.  When the animals above saw this, they were afraid that the whole world would be mountains, so they called him back, but the Cherokee country remains full of mountains to this day. [1]

 

 

Arnold Guyot,  Swiss born geographer, Princeton University professor, and the first man to successfully make some sense of the labyrinth of mountains forming the Appalachian Summit.  1863.

 

Arnold Guyot -

the Appalachian System rises from the point of its lowest depression around New York and in New Jersey both toward the North and toward the South, and reaches its maximum of elevation on its two extremities.

The Southern section is, however, by far the most elevated, both as regards the highest peaks and the general elevation of the whole country.

Unlike any other portion of the Appalachian System, the whole of that vast area of over 170 miles long and over 600 miles square, is divided by traverse chains, running on the whole, North-west and South-east, into a series of closed basins, surrounded by high ridges and lofty peaks.

Each of these basins is drained by a main river which gathers the waters of the numerous mountain torrents, and carries them through deep gorges across the western chain into the Great Valley where they join the Tennessee river.

The Big Yellow Mts. separate the basin of the Watauga from that of the Nolechucky.  The high group of the Black Mts. from which rises the highest peak this side of the Rocky Mts., separates by several of its spurs the Nolechucky from the wide valley of the French Broad River.

The New Found Mts. and Pisgah Ridge separate the high valley of the Big Pigeon from that of the French Broad, - The rough very elevated and continuous chain of the Balsam Mts. The average altitude of which is seldom below 6,000, and which reaches over 6,400 ft., separates the Big Pigeon valley from that of the Tuckaseegee, a tributary of the Little Tennessee; - and the Cowee chain of Mts. (from 4,000 to 5,000 ft.) divides the valley of the Tuckaseegee from that of the Little Tennessee.  These two basins unite at the foot of the Great Smoky Mts. and their combined waters find a single outlet in the wild gorges of the Little Tennessee.

The double chain of the Nantihala Ridge (from 5,000 to 5,500 ft.) and the Valley Town Mts., between which flows in deep gorges the wild torrent of the Nantihala, separates the basin of the Little Tennessee from the large open valleys and plains of the Hiwassee.  The Frog Mts. with their continuation the Cohota Mts. separate the basin of the Occoa and Hiwassee from the outside of the mountain region, and are the last traverse chains which close that series of interior basins.

These transverse chains are by no means inconsiderable obstacles to the intercourse between the various valleys - they are just as high, nay, higher on the whole than the Blue Ridge itself , and they bear besides the highest summits of this vast Mountain tract.[2]

 

Cherokee -

At the creation an ulunsu’ti was given to the white man, and a piece of silver to the Indian.  But the white man despised the stone and threw it away, while the Indian did the same with the silver.  In going about the white man afterward found the silver piece and put it into his pocket and has prized it ever since.  The Indian, in like manner, found the ulunsu’ti where the white man had thrown it.  He picked it up and has kept it since as his talisman, as money in the talismantic power of the white man. [3]