Mount Le Conte (or LeConte) is a mountain located within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Sevier County, Tennessee. At it is the third highest peak in the national park, behind Clingmans Dome () and Mount Guyot (). It is also the highest peak that is completely within Tennessee. From its immediate base to its summit, Mount Le Conte is the mountain with the highest relief east of the Rocky Mountains, rising from its base, near Gatlinburg, Tennessee (elevation ).
There are four subpeaks above on the mountain (referred to as the LeConte massif): West Point (), High Top (), Cliff Tops (), and Myrtle Point (). In addition, Balsam Point, with an elevation above , serves as the dramatic west end of the massif.
Mount Le Conte has the highest inn that provides lodging for visitors in the Eastern United States.
History
There is controversy over which member of the Le Conte family the mountain was named for. The United States Geological Survey lists geologist Joseph Le Conte as the man for whom the mountain was named, supposedly by Swiss explorer Arnold Guyot. However, in recent years this claim has been challenged by local authorities (including the authors of A Natural History of Mount Le Conte), who believe that the mountain derives its name from Joseph's older brother John Le Conte, a physicist at South Carolina College. Their story alleges that the mountain was named by Samuel Buckley in respect to John's help in moving his barometer to Waynesville, North Carolina, at Buckley's request.
Although the mountain was measured in the 1850s, very little activity took place on the mountain until the 1920s, when Paul Adams moved to Knoxville, Tennessee. An enthusiastic hiker and explorer, Adams spent much of his free time creating adventures in the mountains. In 1924 he joined the Great Smoky Mountain Conservation Association, a group dedicated to making the region into a national park. As part of this push, later that year he led an expedition up the mountain with dignitaries from Washington, in order to show the group what rugged beauty those mountains held. The group spent the night in a large tent, on which site LeConte Lodge was eventually built and became a popular resort near the top of the peak. The trip was a great success, and about a decade later Mount Le Conte and the surrounding region was protected as part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Geography and geology
Mount Le Conte is part of the Great Smoky Mountains range of the Blue Ridge geologic and physiographic province of the Appalachian Mountains. It is located in the center of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and is surrounded by a number of lower mountains. It is approximately north-northeast of Clingmans Dome, the highest mountain in the park and in Tennessee, and from the North Carolina state line. The mountain consists of a long massif, oriented in an east-to-west direction, which contains four major peaks. These peaks, from west to east, are known as West Point (elevation ), Cliff Tops (, High Top (), and Myrtle Point (). Balsam Point, another peak, is located west of the main massif, and has an elevation of . Cliff Tops and Myrtle Point both provide nearly 360 degree views, while the other peaks are completely forested. A spring is located atop the mountain, which is the main water source for LeConte Lodge.
It is made up of Late Proterozoic rocks, mostly metamorphosed sandstone, siltstone, shale, and conglomerate formed over 800–450 million years ago. Millions of years of weathering have caused significant erosion, giving the mountains in the region, including Le Conte, a distinctive, gentle sloping profile. A dense stand of Southern Appalachian spruce-fir forest, a remnant from the last ice age, coats the mountain's peaks and upper slopes.
Climate
Mount Le Conte has a humid continental climate (Dfb) bordering on a subalpine climate (Dfc) due to its elevation, giving it cool summers, and cold winters. Annual snowfall averages near the base to on the highest peak. The climate is much cooler and somewhat wetter than the lower elevations. The lowest temperature ever recorded was , on February 19, 2015. The highest temperature ever recorded was on July 1, 2012 and August 7, 2023.