North Carolina State Park System Celebrates 100th Anniversary
North Carolina’s state park system welcomes more than 17.3 million visitors each year to enjoy more than 230,000 acres. Its centennial celebration this year provides an opportunity to recognize the visionary leaders who set the wheels in motion.
It all started with Elisha Mitchell, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who set out to prove that Mount Mitchell was the highest peak in the eastern United States. Using barometric pressure calculations, he determined it as the highest peak at 6,684 feet—and the U.S. Geologic Survey agreed with him in 1882.
