Cavanal Hill (officially Cavanal Mountain), located near

Poteau, Oklahoma Poteau ( ) is a city in, and county seat of, Le Flore County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 8,520 as of the 2010 census. History In 1719, Bernard de la Harpe led a group of French explorers through this area and gave the river its ...

, is described by a sign at its base as the "'World's Highest Hill' – Elevation: 1,999 feet". The actual summit elevation is above sea level; the difference in elevation between the summit and the

Poteau River The Poteau River is a 141-mile (227 km)U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed June 3, 2011 long river located in the U.S. states of Arkansas and Oklahoma. It is the only riv ...

to the north is .

Hill / mountain

The billing is based on a delineation between a hill and a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher ...

, that being if the geographical feature were 2,000 feet or higher than its base, then it would be classified as a mountain instead of a hill. However, the United States

Geographic Names Information System The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features throughout the United States and its territories, Antarctica, and the associated states of ...

contains thousands of summits with "hill" in their names which are higher than 2,000 feet.

Etymology

One source claims that the name is derived from a French word meaning "cave":
TravelOK.com Website. Retrieved September 19, 2012. . Oklahoma historian Muriel H. Wright wrote that ''cavanol'' is a corruption of the French word , meaning "cavernous."Wright, Muriel H. "Some Geographic Names of French Origin in Oklahoma." ''Chronicles of Oklahoma''. Vol.7, No. 2. June 1929.
Accessed November 16, 2016.

History

Cavanal Hill was a notable landmark for French explorers who traveled this area in the 18th century and gave the landmark its name. During the late 1700s, French fur trappers established a camp at the base of Cavanal and named it Poteau, for "Post".

Thomas Nuttall Thomas Nuttall (5 January 1786 – 10 September 1859) was an English botanist and zoologist who lived and worked in America from 1808 until 1841. Nuttall was born in the village of Long Preston, near Settle in the West Riding of Yorkshire and ...

studied plant life here in 1819, and learned about other natural wonders from local French trappers and Indians who were living here. During territorial times Cavanal Hill was along the border of

Skullyville County Skullyville (also spelled Scullyville) is an unincorporated rural community in Le Flore County, Oklahoma, United States. It is approximately one mile east of Spiro and southwest of Fort Smith, Arkansas. The community is within the Fort Smith, ...

and Sugar Loaf County, two of the constituent counties making up the

Moshulatubbee District Moshulatubbee District was one of three administrative super-regions comprising the former Choctaw Nation in the Indian Territory. Also called the First District, it encompassed the northern one-third of the nation. In some historic records it is ...

of the

Choctaw Nation The Choctaw Nation (Choctaw: ''Chahta Okla'') is a Native American territory covering about , occupying portions of southeastern Oklahoma in the United States. The Choctaw Nation is the third-largest federally recognized tribe in the United St ...

. In the late 1800s, Walter Beard established a health resort at the summit of Cavanal Hill. This was a modest wood-frame structure that catered to visitors in the area. Besides the view, the major draw was the natural springs that occur throughout the region. Halfway up Cavanal Hill, George Witte established the town of Witteville. This was a coal mining company town. The mines were located three miles east of the town. Witteville is still marked on some maps, and can be found at the "Y" leading up to the top of Cavanal Hill. Much of the road leading up to the top of the hill was part of the original railroad that led to Witteville. In the 1960s, Senator Robert S. Kerr established a summer residence at the summit of Cavanal Hill. This summer house was located on the same site where Walter Beard first established his health resort.

Recreation

Cavanal Hill is now the site of mountain bike races and the Cavanal Hill Killer 5-Mile Walk. A blacktopped road leads to the summit where visitors can enjoy picturesque views of the Poteau River Valley. Reportedly, one can see

Mount Magazine Mount Magazine, officially named Magazine Mountain, is the highest point of the U.S. Interior Highlands and the U.S. state of Arkansas, and is the site of Mount Magazine State Park. It is a flat-topped mountain or mesa capped by hard rock and r ...

in Arkansas from here on a clear day.

References

{{reflist

External links

Oklahoma on Geocities

360-degree view of Cavanal Hill photographed by Theodore Hampton
* https://web.archive.org/web/20171222053100/http://poteauimprovementproject.org/ Landforms of Le Flore County, Oklahoma Hills of Oklahoma