Mount Mitchell and the Black Mountains: An Environmental History of the Highest Peaks in Eastern America

In Mount Mitchell & the Black Mountains: An Environmental History of the Highest Peaks in Eastern America, Timothy Silver presents the story of the Black Mountain region of North Carolina from the time of its origins a billion years ago to the present. Mostly, Mount Mitchell documents the history of the Black Mountains since the arrival of Europeans and Anglo-Americans in the sixteenth century. Silver’s history of this single mountain range is unique in that it blends a few historical approaches (regional studies, community studies) into one tour de force. It is also different from many histories in that it emphasizes equally the role played by people and nature in shaping events in a specific region. Silver is adamant that “neither people nor mountain ranges exist in isolation” (xv). Additionally, in his view, human behavior within the mountain region was largely dictated by peoples’ views of the natural world and their own place within it. The Black Mountains, as the highest peaks situated within the oldest mountain range in North America, makes for a worthy topic of study. Silver’s choice of the region is also based on more personal reasons: it is the location of his genealogy and some of his earliest childhood memories. Ultimately, he hopes to use environmental history to reveal something new about Appalachian studies; he believes the study of one region reveals truths about a larger world.Mount Mitchell is a chronological tale, beginning with the mountains’ geological beginnings and dating back billions of years. Silver uses the first part of the book to establish the mountains, or rather, nature as a powerful, dynamic, ever-changing force. By doing so, he sets up the natural world (mountains, animals, plants) as something that will meet human settlement on equal footing and work with it equally to create a sort of eco-borderland. For the most part, the sophisticated nature of this topic, while necessary for Silver’s theme as well as to establish his authority as an environmental historian, makes for a complicated (or, to borrow his term, a “kaleidoscopic”) start to an otherwise fascinating and well-written book (27). Still, it seems necessary to include this information: the yin-yang relationship of nature and man requires it. Actually, his discussion of the “founding fathers” of environmental studies (Clements, Tansley, Odum, Gleason) and their various (and often contrasting) theories regarding formations, climax, ecosystems, patch dynamics, and so forth almost holds interest.The bulk of Mount Mitchell is devoted to the period of human habitation, which began approximately 10,000 years ago. Silver’s treatment of Native American history in the Black Mountains region, while brief, begins the most interesting portion of Mount Mitchell. Within a larger discussion of native culture and their food sources and power structures, Silver finds time to shatter the myth that natives did not alter their environment. Going further, he offers a well-written history of European and Anglo-American penetration into the mountains, whether Spanish gold-seekers, Spanish explorers and missionaries, English and French traders, European botanists, colonial land speculators, or English settlers. The Black Mountains of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, while drawing in various groups with various agendas (gold, leather, plants), were largely unimportant outside of a regional context. This sense of importance emerged a little later with the controversy over Mount Mitchell being declared the highest peak in eastern North America. The booster boom initiated by Professor Mitchell and Senator Clingman, their dramatic falling-out, and the subsequent intervention by Professor Guyot, Zebulon Vance, Big Tom Wilson, and Charles Phillips makes for good reading, as does the arrival of such significant color writers as Porte Crayon. The way in which Professor Mitchell’s posthumous legacy was so favorably crafted and the manner in which Clingman was generally condemned is quite remarkable.For the most part, Silver’s account of the Black Mountains is strictly case study-oriented regional history arranged chronologically. There are moments of revisionism, but generally these instances are minor and would only be important to a local/regional historian (such as his view on Mitchell’s claims regarding the location of Mount Mitchell or on the legacy of Professor Mitchell). His primary contribution to revisionist history comes in his assertion of the importance of interplay between man and nature to create the Black Mountain culture. Other times, he provides summaries of “schools” of history, thereby offering concise revisionist viewpoints – occasionally making it clear how he stands on the issue. A case in point comes in his summary of the differing views of nature among environmental historians (as a changeless Edenic paradise or as a dangerous place in need of civilization). Within this context, one of Silver’s themes emerges: that the mountains were not an unchanged paradise prior to man’s arrival, that man was simply the latest force to act as agents of change upon them. Confusingly, he also offers the idea that nature itself is a human construction. There are also instances where he weaves revisionist history into his narrative; one case of this comes in his discussion of commercial agriculture in the mountains, which plays on recent scholarship by John Inscoe and others. Another instance comes in his discussion of boosters and tourism in the Black Mountains, one of several instances where the mountains are clearly not isolated or backward (as is often promoted by the proponents of what Shapiro calls the “myth” of Appalachia).Silver’s history of the Black Mountain region is unique in that it asserts how the mountains are as important as the people. Unlike previous writers and historians, he does not relegate the mountains to the role of “supporting actor in a distinctly human drama” (xv). For Silver, the mountains and people join in one magnificent history, each affecting the other within a complex eco-borderland. Within this realm, he documents the exchanges between various peoples (the trade between Europeans and Anglo-Americans and Native Americans) and animals/plants (deer repopulation, flora, livestock, trees) – whether positive and negative, economic and biological, or technological (i.e., farming techniques blended from Celtic, German, and Cherokee habits). The mountains emerge as a major player in Silver’s discussion on Mount Mitchell itself, whether in the case of the Mitchell-Clingman controversy or the death (and thus immortality) of Mitchell himself. The effect can be reversed: Silver argues, for instance, that Mitchell’s death transformed the Black Mountains from a mere “natural and geologic curiosity” to a “martyr’s mausoleum, a place for pilgrimage and reflection, and a source of state pride” (119).Mount Mitchell is, as its title boldly proclaims, environmental history. Interestingly, Silver fashions his tale by blending two lesser types of history: in one sense, it is a community study of people and their relationship to their surroundings; in another sense, it is local or regional history. Because of Silver’s inclusion of his own journal entries, one might also include a third category to the book: travel writing. His writing style, which is clear and pleasing, unites these three “flavors” of writing into something very satisfactory and useful for both scholars and laymen. While he admits early that his work is “unconventional in organization and narrative style,” it actually works quite well; his use of maps and black-and-white photographs are an added bonus to the appeal of its layout (xvii).Many Appalachian enthusiasts, familiar with the standard histories of the region, will find Silver’s work to be a refreshing change from mainstream histories. The topic, as well as his theme and overall approach, is rare in Appalachian historiography. The notes section of Mount Mitchell is particularly fresh in that it offers a plethora of oft-overlooked Appalachian-related sources. If there is a weakness to the layout of and readability of Mount Mitchell, it might come in Silver’s use of journal entries (four per chapter). While personal and clearly important to him, they generally seem misplaced in the story line. He himself admits early in Mount Mitchell that his organization and narrative style is “unconventional” (xvii). Conceptually, however, Silver is very convincing in his portrayal of life in this region of Appalachia.

Great book. Like new. Wrapped well and delivered on time.

I am an avid hiker and camper with a love for this region. The book provides a great meld of the history of the region and the ecology. Mr. Silver’s opening about reading from either a educational text or fictional perspective provided great fact and character of the region and the people. After reading I find it amazing that the forests of the region and ecology have recovered considering the desecration of the ecosystems by industry and government.Wonderful writer with great research insight.

Captivating bc we have property here

This was a great read for the history of Mt Mitchel a very well written book.

Good book to read with some good details on the title subject, would recommend this book, priced right for the material in this book.

What an excellent book! Timothy Silver has given us a two fold view of Mount Mitchell and the Black Mountains of North Carolina. A combination of the natural history of the area, and man's exploration/exploitation of these lofty peaks. I think what I enjoyed most about the book, were the short "interludes" where the writer inserts his many experiences of car camping, hiking/backpacking, trout fishing, or just marveling at nature while sitting at some well known spot, or some "hidey-hole" known only to people who frequent the area. These personal thoughts heightened my reading pleasure, because like the writer, I have spent a great deal of time in the Blacks and know of what he speaks.The battle between the Mountain's namesake, the Rev. Elisha Mitchell and his former student, future Confederate general Thomas Clingman about who measured the mountain first, is fleshed out completely, and is probably the definitive account of this famous row.The end chapters deal with mankind's interventions on the mountain, and the consequences of these acts. This is followed up with concise information about the acid rain/woolly adelgid issues affecting the Fir and Red Spruce trees on the mountain tops, along with some discussion about the growth cycles about the above mentioned trees, which in my opinion, clears up some of the misinformation out there. For years, the problem was blamed on woolly adelgids, then on acid rain. I personally feel like these two scourges work together hand in hand to decimate the once proud Fraser Firs.This is truly a groundbreaking book. I'd like to see more works that follow this vein. Nicely illustrated.