Both of these disparate worlds owe their existence to their
geology. The soft shady dolomite of the caverns allows the water
to course through creating the various chambers and tunnels. And
the hard igneous and metamorphic rock of Mt. Mitchell has
allowed it to withstand millions of years of erosion. Mt.
Mitchell is an amazing and beautiful place, but it is,
regrettably, a shadow of its former self. When Dr. Elisha
Mitchell, for whom the peak is named, and French botanist Andre
Michaux were exploring Mt. Mitchell back in the early 1800s,
they documented a robust and diverse spruce-fir forest
comparable in climate and composition to southern Canada. Fraser
fir (named after Scottish botanist John Fraser) dominated the
landscape of Mitchell and other peaks at and above 6,000 feet. A
little bit lower, they were joined by red spruce and below that
northern hardwoods, including the majestic American chestnut
cloaked the mountainsides. For millennia, those forested peaks
withstood snow, ice, wind, drought and occasi