Appalachian History

One of the first geologic explorers of North Carolina’s Black Mountains, Elisha Mitchell, gave his name to the region’s highest peak, the one that claimed his own life on June 27, 1857. The Connecticut native was born in 1793 and attended Yale University as a theology student. Mitchell studied the work of Andre Michaux, a French botanist who collected and cataloged over 2,500 specimens in a 1789 trip to ‘la Montagnes Noire.’

Mitchell came to the region in 1825 as part of the North Carolina Geologic Survey. He later taught Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Geology at the University of North Carolina while simultaneously serving as a Presbyterian minister.

In 1827, he first saw the Blacks and commented even then that they seemed higher than Grandfather Mountain, which Michaux had proclaimed as the highest peak in the region. The next year Mitchell climbed Grandfather to better compare the two elevations.

He was certain enough that the Black Mountains were higher that he noted in an 1829 geologic report that he felt the Blacks were the highest peaks between the Gulf of Mexico and New Hampshire’s White Mountains.

Ever the rigorous scientist, Mitchell returned to the region in 1835 to climb the peaks of Roan Mountain, Grandfather, Table Rock, Celo Knob, and Yeates Knob, then finally the steep slopes of the high peak itself. Using barometric pressure gauges and temperature readings, he calculated the crest of the Black Mountains to be 6,476 ft, the highest point in the United States measured at that time.

Mitchell climbed the slopes for his final time in 1857 in an effort to defend his title as discoverer of the high peak. In September 1855, United States Congressman Thomas L. Clingman ascended several peaks of the Black Mountains and took his own set of measurements. He immediately claimed to be discoverer of the high peak, “Clingman’s Peak,” and published his claim. Upon reading Clingman's claim, Mitchell was determined to defend his own discovery, and the ensuing controversy ultimately cost Mitchell his life.

By this time Mitchell was 62 years old, and his memories of the 1838 and 1844 trips to the region were less than clear. As a result, Clingman was able to use Mitchell’s own accounts to discredit him, and it seemed for a time that he would win the honor of being the discoverer of the high peak. To defend his claims, Mitchell made several trips to the Blacks in hopes of retracing his route up to the summit and re-establishing his claim.

For the 1857 trip, Mitchell went to the peak with a small party that included his daughter, son, and two others. On June 27th he set out alone for the upper Cane River Valley, perhaps to talk to a former guide who lived there. Mitchell hiked to the top of the ridge where he had been in 1835, on the high peak itself, and became lost on his return from the top.

A sudden storm descended and in the darkness Mitchell tried to follow a creek, walking the treacherous rocky terrain. There were no trails, and the terrain is rugged and dangerous, with frequent drop-offs of 20-60 ft. He slipped on the dark ridge above a waterfall and fell forty feet. He hit his head as he fell and drowned in the deep cold pool below.

It was many days before his remains were found by Big Tim Wilson, a noted tracker and hunter familiar with the area. Wilson traced Mitchell's final journey back down the mountain from where he had left the ridge to where Mitchell’s body lay in the water, his watch stopped at 8:19 PM.

The 1881-1882 U.S. Geological Survey upheld his measurement of Black Mountain as the highest peak and officially named it Mount Mitchell.


sources: Diary of a Geological Tour by Elisha Mitchell, Kemp Plummer Battle, Univ of NC, 1905
http://museum.unc.edu/get_page.html?chapter=3&slide=7
http://www.mountaintimes.com/history/1920s/mitchell.php3
http://ncnatural.com/Resources/Adventure/Black-Mtns.html


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Future champion college basketball coach Sonny Smith was born November 15, 1936 in Roan Mountain, Tennessee, the son of a mill worker and a cafeteria employee at the local schools. His hometown, he said years later, wasn’t the end of the world---but that you could see it from there. He said there were so many shotgun weddings performed in Roan Mountain that the local church was dubbed "Winchester Cathedral."

Smith rose to college basketball prominence by turning around losing programs at East Tennessee State University, Auburn University, and Virginia Commonwealth University during his 22 years of coaching leadership.

Smith spent his first 11 years after graduating from Tennessee’s Milligan College playing semi-pro basketball and coaching in the high school ranks. As a high school coach in Virginia, North Carolina, Indiana and Kentucky, Smith began to make his contacts to move into the collegiate game. The legendary Vic Bubas helped Sonny land his first collegiate assistant coaching job at William & Mary in 1969. He stayed with the Tribe for a year, moved to Pepperdine for another year, and finally in 1971 landed as assistant coach to Virginia Tech’s Don DeVoe.

Smith was DeVoe's right hand man until 1976, during which time the Hokies never had a losing record. Tech captured the NIT Championship in 1973 and earned a NCAA Tournament berth in 1976.

In 1976 Smith landed his first head coaching job at East Tennessee State, a college in dire need of a winning streak. After a 12-14 record during his inaugural season in 1976-77, Smith guided the program to an 18-9 mark, and the Buccaneers were the Ohio Valley Conference co-champions the next season. Smith won his first of four conference Coach-of-the-Year honors, while establishing himself as an upcoming young coach on the national level.

Sonny Smith is best remembered for his coaching years at Auburn University, where he was named Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year in 1984 and 1989. He was the first coach in Auburn history to have a twenty win season, and the only coach in Auburn history to date to have three consecutive twenty win seasons ('84-'86). In 1985, he coached the Auburn Tigers to their first SEC Tournament Championship in school history.

Smith was a tough disciplinarian who coached Charles Barkley, Chuck Person, and Chris Morris into NBA stars in his three decades of coaching. On January 3, 2007, he was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.

A basketball yarn from Sonny Smith: "There was an Kentucky fan, an Alabama fan, and a Tennessee fan that went to Saudi Arabia and got in trouble for gambling. They were arrested and each given 20 lashes as their punishment.

"Each fan was given one wish before his punishment was administered. The Kentucky fan went first. His wish that was a pillow be strapped to his back to soften the blows. After seeing how much pain the Kentucky fan endured even with the pillow, the Alabama fan’s wish was that he have two pillows strapped to his back while he was flogged.

"Finally, it was time for the Tennessee fan’s punishment. Because the person who was administering the blows had heard of the Big Orange, he granted the UT fan two wishes instead of the customary one. So, the Tennessee fan’s first wish was that he be given 200 lashes, rather than just 20.

"The Saudi was perplexed. He couldn’t figure out why someone who wish to endure such pain. He then asked,

"'What’s your second wish?' To which the Tennessee fan replied, 'Strap that Alabama fan on my back!'"


sources: www.ashof.org
www.sportsstarsusa.com/php/featuredartist.php?id=606&name=sonny+smith
community.foxsports.com/blogs/MrVolunteer/2006/02/19/SONNY_SMITH_BRUCE_PEARL_SWAP_BASKETBALL_WAR_STORIES_AT_BIG_ORANGE_TIPOFF_CLUB_IN_KNOXVILLE


Sonny+Smith Roan+Mountain+TN sports+in+Appalachia appalachia +appalachian+history