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Guyot and the Great Smokies

items 7 of 27 items
  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-10287.jpg
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  • the characterless names of Thermometer and Raven Knobs. Guyot makes no reference to the present day Sharp Top and clearly was not on the State Line, between the big pigeon and Mt. Guyot. Apparently his information was that the State Line came up on the South side of Big Creek. In viev/ of the fact that the State Line was run in 1821, it would be rather unusal that such a misapprehension should be current only four decades later. This seems, however, the most plausible explanation of Guyot's statement that Mts. Guyot, Alexander and Henry are not on the State Line. His comments on Buckley indicates the origin, of the name Mt. Guyot, a compliment from one scientist to another. Buckley had done preliminary work on elevations in this region and had published an article "Mountains in North Carolina and Tennessee" in the American Journal of Science, vol. 27, 2nd series, Due partly to the use of faulty Instruments and partly resulting from'too high base levels, Guyot found that the Buckley observations were of little value. Guyot's work inevitably tied In with the famous Clingman- Mitchell controversy. This was the question as^wheather or not the peak, which now bears the name of Mt. Mitchell, waa in fact the one ascended by Professor Mitchell in 1835 and on which he lost his life in 1857 after establishing to the satisfaction of his followers that the present day Mt. Mitchell was the peak which he had'ascended in 1835* The extensive literature of this controversy is a fascinating subject, requiring more careful analysis than the short time, which has been at my disposal to prepare these notes. Guyot's final determination of the height of Mt. Mitchell as 6,707 feet, in contrast with the 6,711 feet in current use for so mant years, is another indication of the accuracy of his surveys. It was Guyot who put an end to the Mitchell-Clingman controversy by his letter to the Ashevilie News of July 18, 1860, (reprinted _7„
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