Abstract:
The second in a series of articles examining the mid-1850s dispute between Congressman Thomas Lanier Clingman and Professor of Sciences at the University of North Carolina Elisha Mitchell over who had been the first to identify, ascend, and measure the highest peak in the Black Mountains in Yancey County. The debate took a tragic turn when, in June 1857, Mitchell returned to the mountains to vindicate his claim and lost his footing and fell to his death.