House Mountain is a mountain located in Corryton, Tennessee, United States, about northeast of

Knoxville Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...

. Rising to an elevation of above sea level, House Mountain is the highest point in Knox County. The House Mountain State Natural Area— designated in 1987— consists of , mostly on the south side of the mountain. House Mountain is known for its huge

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

boulders, its wide variety of bird and plant life, and for the views from its two peaks. On a clear day, the

Great Smoky Mountains The Great Smoky Mountains (, ''Equa Dutsusdu Dodalv'') are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains and form part of the Blue Ridg ...

and the upper Unaka Range are visible to the south and east, the

Cumberland Plateau The Cumberland Plateau is the southern part of the Appalachian Plateau in the Appalachian Mountains of the United States. It includes much of eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, and portions of northern Alabama and northwest Georgia. The terms " Al ...

is visible to the west, and Powell Mountain and Clinch Mountain are visible to the north and northeast. The origin of the mountain's name is unknown, though a local legend suggests early settlers thought the mountain was shaped like the roof of a house.

Geographical and natural setting

House Mountain rises from a large plain in eastern Knox County, about southwest of the southern terminus of Clinch Mountain and immediately north of McAnnally Ridge. House, McAnnally, and Clinch are all part of the Appalachian Ridge-and-Valley Province, which consists of a series of narrow, elongate ridges stretching in a northeast-to-southwest direction between the main Appalachian crest to the east and the Cumberland Plateau to the west. These ridges are typically flanked by fertile river valleys that are part of the upper

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is a long river located in the Southern United States, southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. Flowing through the states of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, it begins at the confluence of Fren ...

watershed. House Mountain stretches for just over from its southwestern base along Hogskin Branch to its northeastern base along Flat Creek, and covers approximately . The mountain's crest is crowned by two main peaks— one rising southwest of the center of the mountain and one rising on the mountain's northeastern end. The southwest peak is the true summit, although both peaks rise above 2000 feet. Geologically, House Mountain is a "synclinal outlier" of Clinch Mountain. Erosion by Flat Creek— which lies halfway between House and Clinch— separated the two mountains in ancient times. Like all of the Ridge-and-Valleys, House Mountain was created approximately 250 million years ago during the Alleghenian orogeny mountain-building epoch. House Mountain's base is covered with a mesophytic forest consisting chiefly of

maple ''Acer'' is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the soapberry family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated si ...

, tulip poplar, ash, and buckeye. Chestnut oak and table mountain pine dominate the mountain's steeper slopes and upper elevations.

Broadcasting history

Located about a half mile east of House Mountain on much lower Zachary Ridge (behind House Mountain in the picture) is a broadcasting tower, formerly owned and used by

WBIR-TV WBIR-TV (channel 10) is a television station in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with NBC. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station maintains studios on Bill Williams Avenue in Knoxville's Belle Morris section, and its transmitter is lo ...

, Channel 10, Knoxville. The tall tower was actually built in 1963 because the former owners of WBIR— seeking to expand their broadcast coverage in the early 1960s— were unable to purchase private property atop House Mountain to build a new, much shorter tower for their antenna. In a 1983 interview with '' PM Magazine'', John Reece, former WATE-TV program director and former shareholder in the station's ownership, told the intriguing story of how House Mountain contributed a small part to Knoxville's broadcasting history. According to Reece, WBIR— WATE's VHF rival in Knoxville— had long wanted to move from its original tower on

Sharp's Ridge Sharp's Ridge is a steep ridge in Knoxville, Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, north of the city's downtown. A area of the ridge is maintained as Sharp's Ridge Memorial Park, a city park dedicated to the honor of the area's war veterans. The ri ...

in downtown Knoxville (which is still standing), to a much higher site atop House Mountain. If a new WBIR tower had been built atop House Mountain away as the station's owners had planned, the tower would have only needed to be about 600 to to reach the allowable height above average terrain (HAAT) the

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

(FCC) had already approved for the station. According to Reece, so sure was WBIR of moving to House Mountain, the station had concrete piers staked off in 1962, and had already drilled through some of the rocky escarpment on the mountain's apex. Some of those are visible rock outcroppings today.John Reece, interview. ''PM Magazine''. WATE-TV, Knoxville, Tennessee. 30 September 1983. Reece said his former co-investors, Mountcastle Broadcasting, the then-owners of WATE, who had been anticipating a WBIR House Mountain tower and its wide broadcasting coverage area, quickly purchased that property, which happened to be the only property for sale on the mountaintop that could be used as a tower base. The WATE owners then convinced the adjoining property owners not to sell their property atop House Mountain, citing aesthetic reasons. Thus, WBIR was forced to spend millions of dollars in 1963 to build a taller tower for its broadcasting antenna in the surrounding valley below. The resulting tower, now owned by South Central Communications and used by its local station, WIMZ-FM 103.5, was and still is the tallest man-made structure in the state of Tennessee. After WBIR was forced to build the tall tower, WATE then sold its newly acquired House Mountain property to a private owner. Eventually, WBIR-TV moved to a shorter tower (1,504 ft) back on

near downtown Knoxville, built right next to its original tower. Ironically, WATE-TV now operates an adjacent tower on Sharp's Ridge, which is higher than WBIR-TV's.

House Mountain State Natural Area

The House Mountain State Natural Area consists of managed by the

Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) is a Cabinet-level agency first created in 1937 within the government of the U.S. state of Tennessee, headed by the Tennessee Commissioner of Environment and Conservation. Histo ...

and Knox County Parks & Recreation.

The Trust for Public Land The Trust for Public Land is a U.S. nonprofit organization with a mission to "create parks and protect land for people, ensuring healthy, livable communities for generations to come". Since its founding in 1972, the Trust for Public Land has compl ...

purchased the plot in 1985 and sold it to the state of Tennessee in 1987. An interpretive kiosk, picnic facilities, and approximately of trails were constructed in the early 1990s. According to signs posted, users can enjoy from sunrise to sunset.

Photo gallery

Image:House-mountain-west-tn1.jpg, Looking southwest across the crest of House Mountain Image:House-mountain-west-tn2.jpg, Looking west across north Knox County Image:House-mountain-southwest-tn1.jpg, Looking southwest from the West Overlook; McAnnally Ridge is below Image:House-mountain-summit-tn1.jpg, The summit of House Mountain Image:House-mountain-red-oak-tn1.jpg, Red Oak tree along the Right Sawmill Trail Image:House-mountain-outcrop-tn1.jpg, Sandstone outcropping along the West Overlook Trail

References

External links

{{Commons category, House Mountain (Knox County, Tennessee)
House Mountain State Natural Area
– Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation Landforms of Knox County, Tennessee Mountains of Tennessee Protected areas of Knox County, Tennessee