The Pinnacle, is one of the two main peaks located within

Crowders Mountain State Park Crowders Mountain State Park is a North Carolina state park in Gaston County, North Carolina in the United States. It is near Kings Mountain, North Carolina and on the outskirts of Gastonia, North Carolina, it includes the peaks of Crowder's M ...

. The other peak is

Crowders Mountain Crowders Mountain is one of two main peaks within Crowders Mountain State Park, the other peak being The Pinnacle. The park is located in the Western Piedmont of North Carolina between the cities of Kings Mountain and Gastonia or about wes ...

. The park is located in the western

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

of North Carolina between the cities of Kings Mountain and Gastonia.

Geology

The

monadnock An inselberg or monadnock ( ) is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. In Southern Africa, a similar formation of granite is known as a koppie, an ...

is the remnant of a quartzite ridge which formed approximately 400–500 million years ago. The softer material that once covered and surrounded the monadnock has been gradually worn down to its present height of above sea level. The monadnock abruptly rises some 800 feet above the surrounding countryside. The Pinnacle is part of the Kings Mountain Belt, a string of monadnocks and rock types along the piedmont in

the Carolinas The Carolinas, also known simply as Carolina, are the U.S. states of North Carolina and South Carolina considered collectively. They are bordered by Virginia to the north, Tennessee to the west, and Georgia to the southwest. The Atlantic Ocean ...

, many of which can be seen from the summit.

History

The Pinnacle and nearby Crowders Mountain separated the historic hunting lands of the

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

and

Catawba Catawba may refer to: *Catawba people, a Native American tribe in the Carolinas *Catawba language, a language in the Catawban languages family *Catawban languages Botany *Catalpa, a genus of trees, based on the name used by the Catawba and other ...

Indians. The

Battle of Kings Mountain The Battle of Kings Mountain was a military engagement between Patriot and Loyalist militias in South Carolina during the southern campaign of the American Revolutionary War, resulting in a decisive victory for the Patriots. The battle took pl ...

, an important American victory over the British Army during the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

, was fought southwest of the mountain in 1780 in what is now

Kings Mountain National Military Park Kings Mountain National Military Park is a National Military Park near Blacksburg, South Carolina, along the North Carolina/South Carolina border. The park commemorates the Battle of Kings Mountain, a pivotal and significant victory by Ameri ...

Today

A hiking trail leads to the summit, from which it is possible to view the much higher

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are a mountain range in eastern to northeastern North America. The term "Appalachian" refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range, and its surrounding terrain ...

far to the west and north, and the skyscrapers of

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 United ...

some 30 miles to the east.

External links

Crowders Mountain State Park website
Protected areas of Gaston County, North Carolina Mountains of North Carolina Inselbergs of Piedmont (United States) Landforms of Gaston County, North Carolina {{GastonCountyNC-geo-stub