OLD BLACK (GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS)

'Old Black' is a mountain in the Great Smoky Mountains, located in the Southeastern
United States. While often overshadowed by Mount Guyot, its higher
neighbor to the south, Old Black is the 4th-highest mountain in
Tennessee[2] and the 7th-highest in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.[3] The Appalachian Trail crosses its western slope, connecting the Cosby-area trail system with the heart of the
Eastern Smokies.
Like much of the Smokies crest, Old Black lies along the border between Tennessee and
North Carolina, with Cocke County and Sevier County to the west and
Haywood County to the east. The mountain rises
4,400 feet above its northwestern base near Rocky Grove[4] and 3,300 feet above its southeastern base near Walnut Bottom.[5] Old Black is part of the Guyot massif, which extends deep into the interior of the
Smokies. A ridge known as Pinnacle Lead intersects this massif— which comprises the eastern section of the crest of the Smokies— on the western slope of Old Black, giving Old Black a triangular shape similar to that of Tricorner Knob to the south.
Old Black gets its name from the thick, dark-green spruce forest that coats its higher
elevations.^[1] From afar, this forest takes on a dark green character, especially in cooler months when contrasted with the brown hardwood forest in lower elevations. This forest also adds to Old Black's blunt appearance— that of a low pyramid with a wide base.

Contents

Geology

History

Access

References

External links

Geology

Old Black comprises Thunderhead sandstone, a type of Precambrian Class II rock
common throughout the Smokies.^[2]
The rock is part of the Ocoee Supergroup, which was formed
from ocean sediments nearly a billion years ago.^[3] The mountain was created over 200 million
years ago during the Appalachian orogeny, when the North American and African plates collided, thrusting the rock upward.^[4]

History

Arnold Guyot first measured the elevation of Old Black on his survey of the crest of the Smokies in the late 1850s. Guyot measured the mountain's elevation at 6,373 feet, missing the modern measurement by just three feet.^[5] While Guyot initially named the mountain "Mount Henry" after the director of the Smithsonian Institute, "Old Black" was the name
that stuck.^[6]
Laura Thornborough, a writer who made several excursions to the
area in the 1930s, recalled the thick spruce forest that dominates in the Eastern Smokies:

As the A.T. swings around the Tennessee side of Guyot, it passes through what is believed to be the densest stand of spruce and balsam in the Great Smokies.^[7]

In 1984, an F4 fighter plane crashed into the ridge between Inadu Knob and Old Black.^[8] Some of the wreckage
from this crash remains scattered about the area, with a number of fragments located in an area along the Appalachian Trail about a quarter-mile west of the trail's junction with the
Snake Den Ridge Trail. A short spur trail winds through the wreckage.
In 1935, the CCC constructed a segment of the Appalachian Trail across the western slope of Old Black.^[9]

Access

Like most of the key peaks of the Eastern Smokies, Old Black can only be reached via a lengthy hike. The mountain is just over six miles from the nearest parking lot at the
Cosby Campground. The quickest route involves following the Snake Den Ridge Trail out
of Cosby (the trailhead is behind Campsite B51) for 5.3 miles to the Appalachian Trail
junction at Inadu Knob. From this junction, Old Black is nearly a mile to the northwest.
The trail comes to within less than a 10th of a mile from the summit, but the thickness
of the forest atop the mountain will considerably slow any bushwhack attempt, and make off-trail navigation difficult.
As the Appalachian Trail crosses Old Black's western slope, various clearings allow for
spectacular views of Cocke County and Sevier County, Tennessee to the north and northwest. Along the mountain's northeast slope, near a clearing used for a high-altitude helicopter landing pad, much of the Eastern Smokies and the Balsam Mountains can be seen, including Mount Sterling and Luftee Knob. Some of the finest views of Mount Guyot can be seen from this point.

References

1. Michael Frome, (1994) ''Strangers In High Places: The Story of the Great Smoky Mountains'' Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 107.
2. Harry Moore, ''A Roadside Guide to the Geology of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park'' (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1988), 66-68.
3. Moore, p. 32.
4. Moore, p. 23-27.
5. Moore, p. 54-55.
6. Frome, p. 107.
7. Laura Thornborough, ''Great Smoky Mountains'' (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1942), 121.
8. Jack Neely, "Smoky Mountain Archaeology," ''The Metro Pulse'' 12, no. 14 (April 2002). Retrieved: 5 April 2007)
9. Sherrill Hatcher, "The Appalachian Trail In the Smokies," ''Smoky Mountain Historical Society Newsletter'' 20, no. 3 (May-June 1994): 2.

External links

★ Great Smoky Mountains National Park Trail Map - Large file in .pdf format.

★ Old Black -Peakbagger.com

★ South Beyond 6000 in the Eastern Smokies - Information provided by the Carolina Hiking Club for climbing Old Black and other nearby high peaks.