The Pinnacle, is one of the two main peaks located within

Crowders Mountain State Park Crowders Mountain State Park is a North Carolina state park in Gaston County, North Carolina in the United States. It is near Kings Mountain, North Carolina and on the outskirts of Gastonia, North Carolina, it includes the peaks of Crowder's M ...

. The other peak is

Crowders Mountain Crowders Mountain is one of two main peaks within Crowders Mountain State Park, the other peak being The Pinnacle. The park is located in the western Piedmont of North Carolina between the cities of Kings Mountain and Gastonia or about west ...

. The park is located in the western

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

of North Carolina between the cities of Kings Mountain and Gastonia.

Geology

The monadnock is the remnant of a quartzite ridge which formed approximately 400–500 million years ago. The softer material that once covered and surrounded the monadnock has been gradually worn down to its present height of 1,705 feet (520 meters) above sea level. The monadnock abruptly rises some 800 feet above the surrounding countryside. The Pinnacle is part of the Kings Mountain Belt, a string of monadnocks and rock types along the piedmont in

the Carolinas The Carolinas are the U.S. states of North Carolina and South Carolina, considered collectively. They are bordered by Virginia to the north, Tennessee to the west, and Georgia to the southwest. The Atlantic Ocean is to the east. Combining Nor ...

, many of which can be seen from the summit.

History

The Pinnacle and nearby Crowders Mountain separated the historic hunting lands of the

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...

and

Catawba Catawba may refer to: *Catawba people, a Native American tribe in the Carolinas *Catawba language, a language in the Catawban languages family *Catawban languages Botany *Catalpa, a genus of trees, based on the name used by the Catawba and other N ...

Indians. The

Battle of Kings Mountain The Battle of Kings Mountain was a military engagement between Patriot and Loyalist militias in South Carolina during the Southern Campaign of the American Revolutionary War, resulting in a decisive victory for the Patriots. The battle took pla ...

, an important American victory over the British Army during the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

, was fought southwest of the mountain in 1780 in what is now

Kings Mountain National Military Park Kings Mountain National Military Park is a National Military Park near Blacksburg, South Carolina, along the North Carolina/South Carolina border. The park commemorates the Battle of Kings Mountain, a pivotal and significant victory by American Pa ...

Today

A hiking trail leads to the summit, from which it is possible to view the much higher

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

far to the west and north, and the skyscrapers of

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

some 30 miles to the east.

External links

Crowders Mountain State Park website
Protected areas of Gaston County, North Carolina Mountains of North Carolina Inselbergs of Piedmont (United States) Landforms of Gaston County, North Carolina {{GastonCountyNC-geo-stub