Mount Mitchell, located near Asheville in the Black Mountains of North Carolina, is the highest peak (6,684 ft) in the Appalachians, and, as you can you can see from the photo above, the highest peak east of the Mississippi. Until 1845, when Texas joined the union, the mountain was the highest in the whole country.Mount Mitchell was named after Elisha Mitchell, a professor at the University of North Carolina, who determined its height in 1835 and fell to his death at nearby Mitchell Falls in 1857, having returned to verify his earlier measurements. Rough. His tomb is on the summit.MP3: Dolly Parton - Y'all Come (Live)