The mountains of the Southern Appalachians are famous for many things, including wonderfully original music, great hiking trails, inviting small towns, scenic vistas, a wealth of plant and animal species, and much more. But today, let’s take a look at some of the stranger things our wonderful region is home to.
1. Ice in July? Yes, ice can last into July in the shady, rock formations of Beartown State Park in Pocohontas, West Virginia. Source: wvencyclopedia.org
2. She appeared to her mom, see, and told her what happened. Greenbrier County, West Virginia is home to the only documented ghost alleged to have solved her own murder. onlyinyourstate.com
3. Is this the one on the Allmans’ album? The world’s largest peach, which is 135 feet tall, is in Gaffney, South Carolina. It’s a water tower that holds over 1 million gallons of water. npr.org
4. Arch support. The greatest concentration of rock arches outside of the Colorado Plateau are found in the Red River Gorge in Slade, Kentucky. rootsrated.com
5. Tunnel of . . . another state. Only two mountain tunnels in the U.S. cross state lines. The first is The East River Mountain Tunnel on I-77 which crosses West Virginia and Virginia. The other is the Cumberland Gap Tunnel which crosses Tennessee and Kentucky. Appalachian Magazine
6. Big doin’s, little town. Helvetia, a small Swiss town of less than 100 residents in West Virginia, still celebrates Fasnacht. The ceremony includes a parade with huge masks and ends with the ritual burning of Old Man Winter. helvetiawv.com
7. Long fall. The ultimate irony: Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi River (6,684 ft) was named after Dr. Elisha Mitchell, who during a trip to prove his claim, died in a fall from that same mountain. ohfact.com
8. Still goin’ nowhere. In 2010 the U.S. government paid Swain County, North Carolina, $52 million so that they would not have to complete construction of a road. “The Road to Nowhere” stretches six miles into Smoky Mountain National Park and ends abruptly at a tunnel. greatsmokies.com
9. Old growth much? The biggest and oldest trees in the state of North Carolina are found in Joyce Kilmer Memorial forest near Robbinsville. Some are more than 400 years old and many are over 100 feet tall. onlyinyourstate.com
10. Ponies on the move. The wild ponies in Virginia’s Grayson Highland’s State Park were originally brought to the mountains in 1975 from Assateague Island and, like their forbears, they are thinned out and sold at auction once a year. thetrek.com
11. Walking two football fields-plus. America’s longest swinging bridge is 330 feet long and can be found in Sevierville, Tennessee. tnvacation.com
12. How about 30? The longest single span arch bridge in the western hemisphere is the New River Gorge Bridge in Fayette County, West Virginia, at 3,030 feet. weheartwv.com
13. The Ice Age was here. The only slot canyons (deeper than wide; formed by rushing water) on the East Coast are located in the Channels Natural Preserve Area in Lebanon, Virginia. visitabingdonvirginia.com
14. Naked on Cumberland Ave. In 1974 Walter Cronkite declared Knoxville, Tennessee, the streaking capital of the world when, over the course of the spring season, an estimated 5,000 people ran naked down Cumberland Avenue. offbeaten.com
15. No pit stops! Sapphire Valley Resort in North Carolina sponsors a race where contestants slide down the slope in outhouses on skis. divide.com
16. Little piece o’ Canada. Dolly Sods, in Tucker County, West Virginia, is the highest plateau of its kind on the East Coast. weheartwv.com
17. Respect for the dead. In Georgia, a funeral director can lose his or her license by using vulgar language in the presence of a corpse. mentalfloss.com
18. Hence the name? Highland County, Virginia, has the highest mean elevation of any county east of the Mississippi. highlandcounty.org
19. More’n Snowshoe? The snowiest place in the southeastern United States is Terra Alta, West Virginia, which boasts an average annual snowfall of 175 inches. The Weather Channel
20. A rainy night in Georgia . . . Cashiers, a town in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Georgia, receives an average of 87.57 inches of precipitation annually, making it one of the rainiest places in the eastern United States. blueridgecommunities.com
21. A windy night in Carolina. A wind gust of 121.3 miles per hour was recorded on top of Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina in February 2019. grandfather.com
22. Purr-fect spot to stop. Sylva, North Carolina, is home to the American Museum of the Cat where you will find over 5,000 pieces of cat kitsch and what is rumored to be the largest collection of cat wind-up toys in the world. roadsideamerica.com
23. Gold! Dahlonega, Georgia, was the site of one of the first gold rushes in the United States and had a mint that produced gold coins marked with a “D” until 1861. wandernorthgeorgia.com
24. Walkin’ the Smokies.There are over 900 miles of maintained trails in Great Smoky Mountain National Park. That’s almost half the length of the Appalachian Trail. 900 Milers Club
25. Carolina Curvaceous. The curviest road in North Carolina, Route 129 in Deals Gap, is called the Tail of the Dragon because it boasts 318 curves in 11 miles. onlyinyourstate.com
26. Any Studebakers? There are over 4,000 old cars strung out over six miles of trails at the world’s largest old car junkyard located in White, Georgia. exploregeorgia.org
27. Set a spell. The world’s largest Amish chair is found in Blairsville, Georgia, while there’s an 11-foot-tall Big Red Rocker in Maggie Valley, North Carolina. roadsideamerica.com
28. Any camel in a Camel smoke? Sassafras Mountain, the highest peak in South Carolina at 3,560 feet, has no sassafras on it. geology.com
29. Everest Schmeverst. The elevation gain and loss over the course of the full Appalachian Trail is the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest 16 times. thetrek.co
30. Listening to the stars? Wifi and cellphones are illegal in the 10 square miles surrounding the world’s largest steerable telescope in Green Bank, West Virginia. Atlas Obscura
31. Faded blazes. About 99 percent of the Appalachian Trail has been relocated or rebuilt since its completion. thetrek.co
32. Mugging. There’s a house in Caldwell County, North Carolina, covered with over 25,000 coffee mugs. The News Observer
33. It’s all here. The Appalachian Mountains from Virginia to Georgia comprise one of the largest biodiversity hotspots on the East Coast. natureserve.org
34. Junktown. There’s a railroad and miniature town called Stoneypoint built completely out of junk in Jefferson, Virginia. Atlas Obscura
35. And the A.T. starts here too. Amicalola Falls in North Georgia shares the claim of several falls as the tallest waterfall east of the Mississippi. wandernorthgeorgia.com
36. Use some string. The deepest commercial caverns on the East Coast descend 34 floors below ground and are in Natural Bridge, Virginia. naturalbridgecaverns.com
37. Mammoth in the mountains. The most southerly location for Woolly Mammoth fossils is Saltville, Virginia, which is also thought to be the largest Pleistocene fossil site in North America. markgelbart.wordpress.com
38. Technical! The only true peak (a peak that can only be accessed by technical climbers) on the East Coast is Seneca Rocks in Pendleton County, West Virginia. weheartwv.com
39. Shakespeare in these hills. The world’s only re-creation of Shakespeare’s Indoor Theater is the American Shakespeare Center’s Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, Virginia. americanshakespearecenter.com
40. Smokies Rule! In 2018, the Great Smokies was the most visited national park, at 11.4 million visitors. nps.gov
41. Sled slope. Blackwater Falls State Park is home to the longest and fastest sled run on the East Coast where sleds can achieve speeds up to 25 miles per hour. wvstateparks.com
42. Population non-density. Smyrna, a town in South Carolina, is only 1/10 square mile in area, and has a population of only 53 people. mentalfloss.com
43. Imagine the bag! The World’s Largest Teapot, at 14 feet high and 14 feet in diameter is in Chester, West Virginia. chester.lib.wv.us/teapot.html
44. Not your everyday gravestone. In Dahlonega, Georgia, there’s a six-foot pile of stones which continues to grow at the intersection of U.S. 19 and Hwy 60 and is said to mark the grave of an Indian Princess, Trahlyta. Visitors leave stones for good luck and those who take them are said to suffer. roadsideamerica.com
45. The Grand Canyon of the South, located in Breaks Interstate Park on the Virginia/Kentucky state line, is 1,650 feet deep, making it the deepest gorge in the East. onlyinyourstate.com
46. Dunk this! The world’s largest basketball is found atop the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tennessee. offbeaten.com
47. Leaves into the heavens. The tallest standing native hardwood tree in North America is a tulip tree found in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It stands almost 192 feet tall. National Parks Traveler
48. Southern Fare to the Extreme. There are over 3,000 cutouts of pigs located on the hill behind a barbecue restaurant in East Ellijay, Georgia, while Clarkesville, Georgia, boasts the world’s largest grit. roadsideamerica.com
49. Wait, a Black Friday stunt? The Roanoke (Virginia) Mill Mountain Star, erected in November of 1949 by to lure shoppers to the downtown it faces, still ranks as the world’s largest illuminated, freestanding man-made star at 88 and a half feet tall.
50. Lotsa rock. The world’s largest open-face granite quarry, located in Mt. Airy, North Carolina, is so large that it has been spotted by astronauts as they circled the earth. ncgranite.com
The story above appears in our July/August 2019 issue.
