Cheaha Mountain , often called Mount Cheaha, is the highest natural point in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

. It is located a few miles northwest of the town of

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...

in Cheaha State Park, which offers a lodge, a restaurant, and other amenities. The nearest higher peak is Brushy Top in Gilmer County, Georgia, 106.72 miles (171.75 km) away.

Description

The highest point is marked with a USGS benchmark in front of Bunker Tower, a stone

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government unemployment, work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was ...

building with an observation deck on top. The CCC also constructed a road to Cheaha, but the road has been closed for years. The old road is known as CC Road and contains interesting ruins. Near the peak is Bald Rock, which was recently improved with a wheelchair-accessible wooden walkway that provides an impressive

overlook A scenic viewpoint—also called an observation point, viewpoint, viewing point, vista point, scenic overlook,These terms are more commonly used in North America. etc.—is an elevated location where people can view scenery (often with binocul ...

of the surrounding region. The mountain was opened to the public as part of Cheaha State Park on June 7, 1939. Alabama4

The mountain is a host to several commercial and public service transmitters. These radio antennas, along with sundry structures dating back to commercial schemes by the state of Alabama in the 1970s, stand in stark contrast to the surrounding natural environment. The Calhoun County Amateur Radio Association has a

repeater In telecommunications, a repeater is an electronic device that receives a signal and retransmits it. Repeaters are used to extend transmissions so that the signal can cover longer distances or be received on the other side of an obstruction. Some ...

near the peak, and Alabama Public Television has its

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

for WCIQ TV 7 on a tower tall, rebuilt after the January 1982

ice storm An ice storm, also known as a glaze event or a silver storm, is a type of winter storm characterized by freezing rain. The National Weather Service, U.S. National Weather Service defines an ice storm as a storm which results in the accumulatio ...

brought the previous one crashing to the ground.

Etymology

The name ''Cheaha'' is thought to come from the

Choctaw The Choctaw ( ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States, originally based in what is now Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choct ...

word ''chaha'', meaning "high."

Geology

Cheaha Mountain is part of the Talladega Mountains, a small section of the Ridge and Valley Mountains, unlike other elevations of the Appalachians in north Alabama, which are part of 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 ...

. The

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 t ...

is the highest point in the eastern portion of the

Sun Belt The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered stretching across the Southeast and Southwest. Another rough definition of the region is the area south of the Parallel 36°30′ north. Several climates can be found in the re ...

(east of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

, south of Interstate 20, and north of the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

). The summit of the mountain gives an impression of being at a much higher

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

than it actually is, in part because of the relatively low elevation of the adjacent area to the west. For example, the summit of Cheaha Mountain (elevation 2,413 feet or 735 meters) measures roughly 1,725.72 feet (526 meters) above the city of

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

(elevation 686 feet or 209 meters) near the base of the mountain. Geologically it is composed of weakly metamorphosed

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 ...

s and conglomerates of the Cheaha

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock that was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tecton ...

, of

Silurian The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 23.5 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the third and shortest period of t ...

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...

age, and stands high topographically due to the erosional resistance of these rocks. The soil, only moderately deep, is a brown stony silt loam of the Cheaha series; it is well drained and very strongly acidic.

References

External links

Images from Cheaha and Cleburne County

Cheaha State Park
{{authority control Landforms of Cleburne County, Alabama Mountains of Alabama Civilian Conservation Corps in Alabama Highest points of U.S. states State parks of Alabama Protected areas established in 1939 1939 establishments in Alabama Alabama placenames of Native American origin

Description

Etymology

Geology

See also

References

External links