Search Results:
View search results on mapThe summit of Sassafras Mountain is the highest point of land in South Carrolina, 3,560 feet above sea level. Though recent grading is said to have lowered the site to 3,533 feet, this has been made up for by the construction of a substantial viewing platform plaza, with public restrooms. It is one of the 28 of the 50 highest points in the 50 states that are accessible by car.
The observation platform on the summit of Mount Mitchell is the highest point of land in North Carolina. After the first tower was built on top of Mount Mitchell in 1916, the mountain ceased to be the tallest point east of the Mississippi, as the tower was. With increasing visitation, and the access of an auto road, a much more substantial stone tower was erected in 1926. This was eventually considered unsafe, and was torn down in 1959.
Mount Mitchell, generally believed to be the highest peak east of the Mississippi, is named after Dr. Elisha Mitchell, who determined that this peak, soon to bear his name, not Grandfather Mountain, was in fact the taller peak. His calculation of 6,672 feet, made in 1835, it turns out, was only 12 feet short.
New Jersey’s High Point Park is located at the highest point of land in the state, 1,803 feet above sea level. It has Olmstead Brothers designed landscaping and a large stone obelisk, which makes the point 220 feet higher, as well as pointier. It is one of the 28 of the 50 highest points in the 50 states that are accessible by car.
Oklahoma’s highest point of land (4,975 feet) is on Black Mesa, on the western end of the Panhandle. The mesa gets higher after it crosses the state line into New Mexico, and continuing into Colorado. There is a ten foot tall monument at the location, which is a few hundred yards east of the state line. On Nature Conservancy land.
The Preston Monument is a commemorative survey marker at the place where Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Colorado meet, one of the 38 or so “tri-points” in the USA where three states meet at one point on land.
Missouri’s highest point, Taum Sauk Mountain (1,772 feet) is in a state park, and has a road to a parking lot with a well-graded ADA-compliant path leading to a bench and overlook with a granite plaque. There is also a nearby tall viewing tower. It is one of the 28 of the 50 highest points in the 50 states that are accessible by car.
Alabama’s highest point of land, Cheaha Mountain (2,407 feet) is in a state park, and has a large stone observation tower built by the CCC, and a lodge-style hotel, restaurant, and store. It is one of the 28 of the 50 highest points in the 50 states that are accessible by car.
Illinois’ highest point of land is the top of Charles Mound, at 1,235 feet above sea level. The owners of the farm it is located on generally allow visits on the first weekends of the summer months (the rest of the year high point seekers can take the elevator up one of several buildings in Chicago whose upper stories are hundreds of feet higher in elevation).
Hoosier Hill is the highest point of land in Indiana (1,257 feet). It is a low wooded rise on privately owned farmland, marked with a frequently stolen sign that was replaced by an engraved rock that may or may not be there still.
Hawkeye Point is the tallest point of land in Iowa (1,670 feet), next to a very tall farm silo (the top of which is obviously a higher point). It has a nice monument with directional place/distance sign poles, carved stones, and other features.
Mount Avron is the highest point of land in Michigan (1,979 feet). There is a sign and a bench in the woods along a remote logging road.
Mount Sunflower is the highest point of land in Kansas (4,039 feet). It has a couple of nice sunflower sculptures and a plaque.
Panorama Point is the highest point of land in Nebraska (5,424 feet), and has a small stone monument.
White Butte is the highest point of land in North Dakota (3,506 feet). It is in an interesting area of chalky white mounds, on private land. Visitation is allowed, and there is a parking area, with a two mile trail leading to the site, which has a survey marker and a mailbox used for making donations for trail upkeep, and for notes by Hi-Pointers (people who visit the high points of US states).
Woodall Mountain rises 300 feet above the surrounding plain, and is the highest point of land in the state of Mississippi. A small dirt road leads to the summit (806 feet above sea level), where there is a power line pole. Much of land in the area is owned by a gun club, and visitors are cautioned to take extra care when visiting during hunting season.
Driskill Mountain rises about 150 feet above the surrounding plain, and is the official highest point of land in Louisiana. The summit, 535 feet above sea level, is reached on a trail that starts behind a church. There is a post with a sign, a small pile of rocks, and a message box at the high point.
Delaware’s highest point of land is so low that it’s not even acknowledged as a hill, but simply as a surveying site known as the Ebright Azimuth (at 448 feet above sea level). A state historic sign along a two-lane highway marks the spot, though the actual highest point is said to be in a trailer park 50 feet from the sign. It is the second lowest state high point of all the 50 states. Only Florida’s is lower.
At 345 feet above sea level, the top of Britton Hill, on the panhandle of Florida, is the highest point of land in the state. It is in a small park, with a stone monument and a bench. It is also the lowest highest point of all the 50 states.
In Crystal City, Missouri, a former underground sand mine has been turned into a recreational center, with laser tag, volleyball, disc golf, and kayaking tours on a 150 acre subterranean lake. It also has some underground warehousing, though the entire facility has been closed down for a few years due to flooding.
These former sandstone mines on the shore of the river, near St. Paul, Minnesota, were turned into a speakeasy in the 1920s, and have since been further developed into an event venue, and a big band dance hall. A castle style front was constructed in the 1930’s, when it was known as Castle Royale.
A former sandstone mine in Festus, Missouri, was turned into a roller rink and night club called Caveland, where musical acts including MC5 and Bob Seger once played. It closed in 1985, and sat idle until 2003, when it was bought on Ebay in 2003, and turned into a private home. It is located down the street from Festus RV and Boat Storage, inside another mine, in the same bluff.
This natural cave in the Ozarks near Parthenon, Arkansas, was merged into a 6,000 square foot home, now operated as lodge, renting for more than a thousand dollars a night. It’s six bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, and living room are all carefully integrated into the natural cave structures. Plastic lining on parts of the ceiling keeps most of the moisture out of the living areas.
Part of a decommissioned copper mine in White Pine, Michigan, has been converted into an underground grow house and plant research facility called SubTerra, by the Prairie Plant Systems company. Doing this kind of research in an underground facility isolates it from the outdoor environment, limiting the possibility of contamination from inside to outside, or outside to inside, both important, especially if working on genetic modifications.
A large salt mine in Hutchinson, Kansas, one of the largest in the world, has been turned into a storage site for records and other assets, including Hollywood films and oil company data. Developed by the Underground Vaults and Storage Company, it opened in 1959, when a lease was struck with the Carey Salt Mine, which still operates at the location, under a different name.
This former iron mine, in the Hudson Valley, near Livingston, New York, is where the Iron Mountain company started, and where it got its name. Its founder, Herman Knaust, marketed the property as a safe underground storage site for New York City banks and corporations, starting in 1951, calling the business Iron Mountain Atomic Storage. The company expanded into a former limestone mine across the Hudson in Rosendale, then started buying above ground storage warehouses in 1978.
The Iron Mountain Company expanded into New England in 1980, when it purchased this bank records bunker near Greenville, Rhode Island, known as the Industrial National Bank Repository (a bank that evolved into the Fleet Bank of Boston). The facility was constructed underground for safety and security, in the 1960s, and remains in use by Iron Mountain.
The Pepperell Underground Records Storage Center, in Pepperell, Massachusetts, near the New Hampshire state line, was a vault belonging to the First National Bank of Boston, built in 1960. It was shared with seven other of the major banks of New England. Underground space measures 60 by 120 feet, a total of 7,200 square feet. Known as “Location X,” it had emergency supplies for up to 50 people, as well as decontamination showers, generator, and a 16,000 pound blast door.
There are only a few film archives in the country that store nitrate film, and they include the major film archives in the nation: the two Packard archives (Culpeper, Virginia, and Santa Clarita, California); the George Eastman House’s Louis B. Mayer Conservation Center in Chili, New York; and the Museum of Modern Art Film Archive, in Hamlin, Pennsylvania. MoMA’s collection is the largest private film collection in the world.
One of the largest collections of microfilmed records is inside the Granite Mountain Records Vault, the principal storage facility for the genealogical research programs of the Mormon Church. Since the Mormons are interested in converting the ancestors of every living person, that means having the names for everyone who has ever lived on the planet, or as close to it as they can get.