Mount Collins
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Mount Collins | |
|---|---|
 Mount Collins, looking west from Newfound Gap Road | |
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 6,188 ft (1,886 m)[1] |
| Prominence | 470 feet (143 m)[2] |
| Coordinates | 35°35′12.51″N 83°28′20.56″W / 35.5868083°N 83.4723778°W[1] |
| Geography | |
 | |
| Location | |
| Parent range | Great Smoky Mountains |
| Topo map | USGS Clingmans Dome |
| Climbing | |
| Easiest route | Hike |
Mount Collins is a mountain in the Great Smoky Mountains, located in the Southeastern United States. It has an elevation of 6,188 feet (1,886 m) above sea level. Located along the Appalachian Trail between Kuwohi and Newfound Gap, the mountain is a popular destination for thru-hikers. A backcountry shelter and a major trail junction are located along the mountain's northeastern slope. The mountain's summit is covered by a southern Appalachian spruce–fir forest.
Like most of the Smokies crest, Mount Collins is situated along the Tennessee-North Carolina border, with Sevier County to the north and Swain County to the south. The mountain rises approximately 4,000 feet (1,200 m) above its southeastern base near Bryson City[3] and just over 3,000 feet (910 m) above its northwestern base near Meigs Post Prong.[4] The mountain is the 25th-highest mountain in the Eastern United States, the 7th-highest in Tennessee,[5] and the 10th-highest in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.[6]
The Sugarland Mountain massif—which rises in the Sugarlands and stretches nearly 10 miles (16 km) across the north-central section of the park—intersects the Smokies crest at the summit of Mount Collins. Two major watersheds—Little River and the West Fork of the Little Pigeon River—have their sources high on the mountain's northern slopes. The former flows down to Townsend and drains the northwestern Smokies before emptying into the Little Tennessee River. The latter drains the north-central section of the park, flowing through the Sugarlands en route to the French Broad River.
Mount Collins is named after Robert Collins, an Oconaluftee resident who guided Arnold Guyot across the crest of the Smokies in the late 1850s.[7] In 1859, Guyot correctly measured the mountain's summit at 6,188 feet (1,886 m).[8] While originally named "Mount Collins", the mountain was known as "Meigs Post" throughout the late-19th century and early-20th century after a station constructed by Return Meigs near its summit. In 1931, Horace Kephart requested the mountain be named for him, but after protests from Tennesseans (who favored their statesman Robert Collins over the North Carolinian Kephart), he settled on the mountain that now bears his name several miles to the east.[9]