Built in 1959, the observation tower features a circular observation platform accessed by a spiral ramp. The ramp is in length, and rises at a 12 percent grade, in sync with the Clingmans Dome Trail. The platform, in diameter, allows spectators a 360-degree panorama of the surrounding terrain. Cantilevered signs point out the various peaks, ridges, cities, and other features visible in the distance. Depending on the haze, visibility ranges from on hazy days to on very clear days. the tower was completed on October 23, 1959.

Access

thumb|Information Center.

Kuwohi is the most accessible mountain top in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Clingmans Dome Road, which is open annually from April 1 through November 30, The short, steep trail provides a small visitor information center and park store staffed by Smokies Life, the park's non-profit. The trail offers a glimpse of the often hostile environment of highland Appalachia, passing through the spruce-fir forest and its accompanying blowdowns and dead Fraser Firs.

The Appalachian Trail (A.T.) crosses Kuwohi, passing immediately north of the observation tower. A leg of the trail connects the mountain with Newfound Gap and provides the only access to the mountain in winter months. The nearest A.T. backcountry shelters are the Double Spring Gap Shelter, which is to the west near the Goshen Prong junction, and the Mount Collins shelter, which is to the east near the A.T.'s junction with the Sugarland Mountain Trail. Kuwohi is the upper terminus for several additional hiking trails, including the Forney Ridge Trail (to Andrews Bald) and the Forney Creek Trail (to the Benton MacKaye Trail on the shores of Fontana Lake).

The western terminus of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, which connects the Smokies to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, is located atop Kuwohi. It follows the Appalachian Trail for to the east, where it then begins to descend toward the Blue Ridge Parkway, via the Fork Ridge Trail.

History

thumb|Viewpoint along [[Alum Cave Trail|the Alum Cave Trail ascending towards Mount Le Conte]]

The Cherokee name for the mountain is () or (), translating to 'mulberry place'. According to a Cherokee myth recorded by ethnologist James Mooney in the late 19th century, the mountain was the home of the White Bear, the great chief of all bears, and the location of one of the bears' council houses. The enchanted lake of Ataga'hi ("Gall Place"), the waters of which could cure wounded bears, was believed by the Cherokee to be located somewhere between Kuwohi and the headwaters of the Oconaluftee River to the east.

In 1789, an act passed by the North Carolina legislature ceded what is now Tennessee to the federal government. This act fixed a portion of the boundary between the two along the crest of the "Great Iron or Smoky Mountains," which would have included the mountain later known as Clingmans Dome. The mountain was dubbed "Smoky Dome" by American settlers moving in from other areas.

In 1859, the mountain was renamed to "Clingmans Dome" by geographer Arnold Guyot for compatriot Thomas L. Clingman, who extensively explored, measured, and promoted the area in the 1850s, and who would go on to become a Confederate general of the American Civil War. Guyot named the mountain for Clingman because of an argument between Clingman and a professor at the University of North Carolina, Elisha Mitchell, over which mountain was actually the highest in the region. Mitchell contended that a peak by the name of Black Dome (now known as Mount Mitchell) was the highest, while Clingman asserted that Smoky Dome was the true highest peak. Guyot determined that Black Dome was higher than Smoky Dome.

In the early morning hours of June 12, 1946, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress crashed near the summit of Kuwohi, killing all twelve aboard.

In June 2022, Lavita Hill and Mary "Missy" Crowe, both members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, drafted legislation for the Tribe to support changing the name of Clingmans Dome to Kuwahi ('mulberry place')—the original name given to the area by Cherokees. The resolution describes the area, "Kuwahi or 'mulberry place', is the highest point in our area and has significance to us as Cherokees as it was visited by medicine people who prayed and sought guidance from the Creator regarding important matters facing our people, and then returned to our towns to give guidance and advice." The Tribal Council of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians passed the legislation, submitted by Hill and Crowe, during its regular session on July 14, 2022, thus lending the Tribe's support for the name change effort. The change was presented as an opportunity "to talk about the language" and remind people that "this was Cherokee homeland." On August 2, 2022, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to support the name change, after consultation with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. The National Park Service "strongly supported" this name change.

Geology

Kuwohi is part of a geological formation known as the Copperhill Formation. It consists predominately of massive, coarse-grained metagreywacke and metaconglomerate. The lower northern flanks of Kuwohi are underlain by thick layers of sulfidic, quartz-garnet-muscovite phyllite and schist, which occur within the metagraywackes and metaconglomerates. Adjacent to and south of its summit, thin, southward-dipping, and discontinuous beds of garnetiferous (locally graphitic and sulfidic) metasiltstone occur within the Copperhill Formation.

The Copperhill Formation is part of the greater Ocoee Supergroup, a body of clastic metasedimentary rocks formed 560 million years ago. They unconformably lie upon Precambrian granitic and gneissic rocks. The sediments that originally comprised the Ocoee Supergroup accumulated in a string of narrow, deep-water basins that stretched along the entire southern-central Appalachian margin from Tennessee, North Carolina, to Georgia. These basins were rift basins formed by the rifting of Rodinia.

The initial metamorphism of the Ocoee Supergroup occurred about 400 million years ago as the result of Ordovician-Silurian tectonism during the Taconic orogeny. Later, Devonian-Mississippian metamorphism of these strata occurred during the Acadian orogeny and additional Pennsylvanian to Permian alteration by retrograde metamorphism and deformation occurred during the Alleghanian orogeny. During the latest part of this orogeny, this segment of the Appalachian Mountains was formed by thrust faulting and folding that uplifted these strata as a series of complexly deformed thrust sheets. During the Mesozoic and Cenozoic, the gradual uplift and erosion of this part of the Appalachian Mountains has continued.

Soils of Kuwohi are mostly moderately deep to shallow, well drained dark brown loam or sandy loam of strong to extreme acidity; Breakneck and Pullback series are most common.

Climate

The climate of the summit of Kuwohi is humid continental (Köppen Dfb). The surrounding areas have an oceanic (Köppen Cfb) climate, as does most of the Blue Ridge Mountains. As with much of the southern Blue Ridge, the area qualifies as part of the Appalachian Temperate Rainforest.

<gallery widths="200px">

Image:Abies fraseri0.jpg|Kuwohi, with groves of dead trees

Image:Walkway to Clingmans Dome, TN IMG 4941.JPG|Base of the helical walkway ramp to the top of the observation tower

Image:A view of the "smoky" mountains from Clingmans Dome IMG 4944.JPG|Mountains north of the observation tower obscured by low clouds.

</gallery>

See also

  • List of mountains in North Carolina
  • List of U.S. states by elevation

References

Bibliography

  • 'My Smoky Mountain Guide: Clingman's Dome'