Mount Pisgah is a mountain in the Appalachian mountain range and part of the

Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virgin ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The mountain's height is 5,721 feet (1,744 m) above sea level, and it sits approximately 15 miles (24 kilometers) southwest of

Asheville Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous cit ...

, near the crossing of the boundaries of Buncombe,

Haywood Haywood may refer to: Places Canada * Haywood, Manitoba United Kingdom * Haywood, Herefordshire * Great Haywood, Staffordshire * Little Haywood, Staffordshire United States * Hayward, California, formerly Haywood * Haywood, Kentucky * Haywood, ...

Henderson Henderson may refer to: People *Henderson (surname), description of the surname, and a list of people with the surname *Clan Henderson, a Scottish clan Places Argentina *Henderson, Buenos Aires Australia *Henderson, Western Australia Canada * H ...

and

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

counties. It is located on the border of Buncombe and Haywood counties, close to the point where Henderson and Transylvania meet them, but not actually within the latter two counties. The mountain is easily accessible via a hiking trail from the

Blue Ridge Parkway The Blue Ridge Parkway is a National Parkway and All-American Road in the United States, noted for its scenic beauty. The parkway, which is America's longest linear park, runs for through 29 Virginia and North Carolina counties, linking Shenand ...

, near the Pisgah Inn.

Broadcasting controversy

The prominent tower in the picture at the crest of Mount Pisgah, on what is known as Pisgah Ledge, is a television

broadcast tower Radio masts and towers are typically tall structures designed to support antennas for telecommunications and broadcasting, including television. There are two main types: guyed and self-supporting structures. They are among the tallest human-mad ...

owned by Chesapeake Television, Incorporated, doing business as the

Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, t ...

, licensee of

WLOS WLOS (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Asheville, North Carolina, United States, broadcasting American Broadcasting Company, ABC and MyNetworkTV programming to Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina. It is owned by Sincl ...

TV 13.x, transmitting on VHF

channel Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Austral ...

13, from nearby Asheville, North Carolina. It is the highest television antenna east of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

, at above the surrounding valley floor, and above mean sea level, according to the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

. Co-located on the tower is WUNF-TV 33.x on UHF channel 25,

WKSF WKSF (99.9 FM "Kiss Country") is a country music station licensed to serve Old Fort, North Carolina. The iHeartMedia, Inc. station broadcasts from a tower on Mount Pisgah, southwest of Asheville with an ERP of 53,000 watts. The tower is shared ...

FM 99.9, WXL56 on 162.400 MHz from the Greenville/Spartanburg office of the

National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...

, and ham radio vhf (146.760 N2GE). From this location, the stations cover the western Carolinas

media market A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...

. Due to the

terrain shielding Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin wo ...

of the surrounding mountains, and the much lower and flatter

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

(and therefore much greater

height above average terrain Height above average terrain (HAAT), or (less popularly) effective height above average terrain (EHAAT), is the vertical position of an antenna site is above the surrounding landscape. HAAT is used extensively in FM radio and television, as it is ...

) toward the southeast, the stations actually cover much more of South Carolina than they do North Carolina. On May 22, 2001, the

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...

decided to allow WLOS TV to build a replacement television transmission tower on top of Mount Pisgah. The new tower would have been a lighter-weight tower to support the station's

digital TV Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative advanc ...

antenna that would have replaced the heavier channel 13 analog antenna, fulfilling the government-ordered transfer to

digital transmission Data transmission and data reception or, more broadly, data communication or digital communications is the transfer and reception of data in the form of a digital bitstream or a digitized analog signal transmitted over a point-to-point or ...

. The old tower would not have supported both the heavy analog antenna, plus the added weight of a full power digital antenna. The Blue Ridge Parkway and several conservation organizations had opposed building a new tower on the peak located adjacent to the Parkway and repeatedly requested the Forest Service explore alternative locations. In 2009, the controversy was resolved, with the

FCC The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

and the

U.S. Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...

allowing WLOS to maintain its old tower on the summit after the analog antenna was removed, and the station to make needed adjustments to its digital antennas now mounted on the tower.

Recreation

The trail leading to the summit of Mt. Pisgah starts at

milepost A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway line, canal or boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks; or they can give their position on the route relative to so ...

407 of the Blue Ridge Parkway on the west side of the road at an overlook labeled "Mt. Pisgah Parking". The trail is 1.6 miles long and is of moderate difficulty (sections near the summit can be rather steep). There is a small observation deck near the TV tower at the summit. Leading up the mountain from the valley floor, is a still-operating

cable car Cable car most commonly refers to the following cable transportation systems: * Aerial lift, such as aerial tramways and gondola lifts, in which the vehicle is suspended in the air from a cable ** Aerial tramway ** Chairlift ** Gondola lift *** Bi ...

that is used to ferry broadcasting equipment to the building. The cable car also ferries engineers during bad weather, for mandatory transmitter work. Also at the Mt. Pisgah Parking area is the Buck Spring

trailhead A trailhead is the point at which a trail begins, where the trail is often intended for hiking, biking, horseback riding, or off-road vehicles. Modern trailheads often contain rest rooms, maps, sign posts and distribution centers for information ...

. A short walk down the Buck Spring Trail brings visitors to a

historic History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

exhibit located at the foundation stone remains of the George Vanderbilt hunting lodge. On the east side of the Parkway at

407 is the Mt. Pisgah Picnic Area. The picnic area includes grills, tables and restroom facilities. All are

ADA Ada may refer to: Places Africa * Ada Foah, a town in Ghana * Ada (Ghana parliament constituency) * Ada, Osun, a town in Nigeria Asia * Ada, Urmia, a village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Ada, Karaman, a village in Karaman Province, ...

handicapped accessible Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i.e ...

. The Pisgah Inn Lodge Restaurant and Country Store, as well as the Mt. Pisgah

Campground A campsite, also known as a campground or camping pitch, is a place used for camping, overnight stay in an outdoor area. In British English, a ''campsite'' is an area, usually divided into a number of pitches, where people can camp overnight u ...

is located at milepost 408 of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Several other trails can be accessed from the campground or the Inn.

Gallery

File:Mount Pisgah from Black Balsam Knob 2007.jpg, View from

Black Balsam Knob Black Balsam Knob, also known as Black Balsam Bald, is in the Pisgah National Forest southwest of Asheville, North Carolina, near milepost 420 on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is the second highest mountain in the Great Balsam Mountains. The Great Ba ...

, 9.5 miles distant Image:Mount Pisgah from NC 151, Oct 2016 1.jpg, Viewed from

North Carolina Highway 151 North Carolina Highway 151 (NC 151) is a north-south state highway located in western Buncombe County. NC 151 provides a direct access to the Blue Ridge Parkway from the west side of the Asheville vicinity. Route description NC 151 h ...

Image:Mount Pisgah, NC radio tower, October 2016.jpg, Mount Pisgah summit, with radio tower

References

External links

*
Blue Ridge Parkway: Mount Pisgah

Pisgah Inn

Pisgah Cable Car
{{authority control Blue Ridge Parkway Protected areas of Buncombe County, North Carolina Protected areas of Haywood County, North Carolina Pisgah Mountains of Buncombe County, North Carolina Mountains of Haywood County, North Carolina

Broadcasting controversy

Recreation

Gallery

See also

References

External links