Section 07
Field Record
The mountains were written down slowly, and often wrongly. A French botanist sang on a summit he believed was the highest in North America; a professor died re-measuring a peak in a dispute about the same question. The counting continues in an all-taxa inventory that keeps turning up species nobody had recorded.
Entries in this section
- 07.1André MichauxThe French botanist climbed Grandfather Mountain in 1794 convinced he had reached the highest point in North America and sang the Marseillaise at the top.
- 07.2Elisha MitchellDied in 1857 while re-measuring the peak that now carries his name, in a dispute about which summit was highest.
- 07.3Counting everythingThe all-taxa inventory in the national park set out to record every species present, and keeps finding new ones.
Two of the people who wrote it down
André Michaux
Botanist, working the slopes in the 1790s
Collected plant specimens across these mountains for the Paris collections, and climbed Grandfather Mountain convinced he had reached the highest point in North America.
Elisha Mitchell
Professor and surveyor, in the Black Mountains
Measured the Black Mountains repeatedly in a dispute over which summit stood highest, and died on the mountain that now carries his name while re-checking his own figures.
Elsewhere in the publication