Silers Bald is a mountain in the western

Great Smoky Mountains The Great Smoky Mountains (, ''Equa Dutsusdu Dodalv'') are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains and form part of the Blue Ridg ...

, located in the southeastern United States with the

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States in the southeastern United States, southeast, with parts in North Carolina and Tennessee. The park straddles the ridgeline o ...

. Its proximity to

Kuwohi Kuwohi (, also known as Clingmans Dome, its former official name) is a mountain in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina in the Southeastern United States. At an topographical summit, elevation of , it is the highest mountai ...

and its location along the

Appalachian Trail The Appalachian Trail, also called the A.T., is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states.Gailey, Chris (2006)"Appalachian Tra ...

make it a popular hiking destination.

Description

Silers Bald is located on the crest of the Smokies with

Thunderhead Mountain Thunderhead Mountain is a mountain in the west-central part of the Great Smoky Mountains, located in the southeastern United States. Rising along the border between Tennessee and North Carolina, the mountain dominates the western Smokies. The A ...

to the west and Kuwohi to the east. The Tennessee-North Carolina state line crosses the summit, with the mountain split evenly between

Sevier County, Tennessee Sevier County ( ) is a county of the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 98,380. Its county seat and largest city is Sevierville. Sevier County comprises the Sevierville, TN Micropolitan Statistical Area, which ...

, to the north and

Swain County, North Carolina Swain County is a County (United States), county located on the far western border of the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 14,117. Its county seat is Bryson City, North Carolina, ...

, to the south. Silers Bald rises approximately above its northern base near Fish Camp Prong (of

Little River Little River may refer to several places: Australia Streams New South Wales *Little River (Dubbo), source in the Dubbo region, a tributary of the Macquarie River * Little River (Oberon), source in the Oberon Shire, a tributary of Coxs River (Haw ...

), and approximately above its southern base near Forney Creek. While Silers Bald was a grassy bald for most of the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was probably a wooded peak before the arrival of European settlers. For this reason, the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

does not maintain the bald atop the mountain (the park currently maintains only two grassy balds—

Gregory Bald Gregory Bald is a mountain in the Great Smoky Mountains. It has an elevation of above sea level. The mountain's majestic summit makes it a popular hiking destination. Another feature that attracts many visitors are the flame azaleas that bloom o ...

and Andrews Bald). A narrow corridor for the

, which crosses the summit, is kept clear for hikers. There is still a small bald area at the summit, approximately in diameter, where the Appalachian Trail makes a 90-degree turn. Several grassy meadows remain on the mountain's western slope.

Geology

Silers Bald consists of Thunderhead sandstone, a small pile of which crowns the summit. This sandstone, part of the Ocoee Supergroup, was formed from ocean sediments nearly a billion years ago. The mountain, like most of the Smokies, was formed some 200 million years ago when the

North American North America is a continent in the Northern and Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea, and to the sou ...

and African plates collided during the

Appalachian orogeny Appalachian may refer to: * Appalachian Mountains, a major mountain range in eastern United States and Canada * Appalachian Trail, a hiking trail in the eastern United States * The people of Appalachia and their culture ** Appalachian Americans, e ...

, pushing the rock upward.

History

While Silers Bald is hardly mentioned in

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 ...

lore, a

petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

was discovered near the summit in 1917. The mountain's elevation is probably recorded by

Arnold Guyot Arnold Henry Guyot ( ) (September 28, 1807February 8, 1884) was a Swiss-American geologist and geographer. Early life Guyot was born on September 28, 1807, at Boudevilliers, near Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He was educated at Chaux-de-Fonds, then a ...

during his 1859 survey of the Smokies crest but under a different name (possibly Guyot's "Big Stone Mountain," which Guyot listed with an elevation of and lying somewhere between Mt. Buckley and Thunderhead). Silers Bald is named after Jesse Siler, a prominent North Carolinian who grazed sheep and cattle atop the mountain in the 19th century. Likewise, Siler Bald, in the Nantahala Mountains to the south, was named after Jesse's brother, William. Albert Mountain, also to the south, was named after Jesse's nephew, Albert Siler. By the late 19th century, Silers Bald was the far eastern end of a giant grassy pasture that stretched several miles across the Smokies' western ridge all the way to Russell Field, which overlooks

Cades Cove Cades Cove is an isolated valley located in the Tennessee section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The valley was home to numerous settlers before the formation of the national park. Cades Cove, the single most popular destination ...

. The mountain is mentioned several times in

Horace Kephart Horace Sowers Kephart (September 8, 1862 – April 2, 1931) was an American travel writer and librarian, best known as the author of '' Our Southern Highlanders'' (a memoir about his life in the Great Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina ...

's ''

Our Southern Highlanders ''Our Southern Highlanders: A Narrative of Adventure in the Southern Appalachians and a Study of Life Among the Mountaineers'' is a book written by American author Horace Kephart (1862–1931), first published in 1913 and revised in 1922. Insp ...

'' as the last stop before one enters a heavily-wooded wilderness. According to Kephart, beyond "Hall cabin" (a herder's shack near modern Big Chestnut Bald, six miles (10 km) east of Thunderhead):

...there is just one shack, at Siler's Meadow. It is down below the summit, hidden in timber, and you would never have seen it. Even if you had, you would have found it as bare as a last year's mouse nest, for nobody ever goes there except for a few bear-hunters. From there onward for forty miles is an uninhabited wilderness so rough that you could not make seven miles a day in it to save your life..."

Laura Thornborough, a writer who visited Silers Bald in the 1930s, recalls it as a giant meadow:

Silers is one of the mysterious grassy balds, or mountain-top meadows, and an outstanding vantage point commanding spectacular views.Laura Thornborough, ''Great Smoky Mountains'' (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1942), 124.

Access

The easiest access to Silers Bald is to take the Kuwohi tower trail from the Forney Ridge parking lot to the tower. From there, following the

west the summit of Silers Bald is just over four miles (6 km). This leg of the trail is riddled with elevation gain and loss, crossing Mt. Buckley (a knob of Kuwohi), Jenkins Knob, and a sparsely-wooded ridge known as "The Narrows". At the summit of Silers Bald, an unmarked spur trail winds several yards to a cliff on the northwest slope of the mountain. This cliff offers a 180-degree view of the northern Smokies, with a clear view of Mount Le Conte to the east and Thunderhead Mountain to the west.

References

External links

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Trail Map
- Large file in .pdf format.
Silers Bald
- Peakbagger.com
Silers Bald Shelter
- one of the better backwoods shelters along the

{{Mountains of Tennessee Mountains of Great Smoky Mountains National Park Mountains on the Appalachian Trail Mountains of Tennessee Mountains of North Carolina Protected areas of Sevier County, Tennessee Protected areas of Swain County, North Carolina Appalachian balds Mountains of Swain County, North Carolina Mountains of Sevier County, Tennessee