The Blue Ridge Parkway passes along the range's southern section, and is connected to the summit of Mount Mitchell by North Carolina Highway 128.

A few miles south of Celo, the crest drops to 5,700 feet (1,700 m) at Deep Gap before rising steeply again to the summit of Potato Hill in the north-central section of the range.

The southwestern part of the range is drained by the upper French Broad River which, like the Nolichucky, is west of the Eastern Continental Divide and thus its waters eventually wind up in the Gulf of Mexico.

The North Fork Reservoir, supplied with the ample rain caused by moisture pushing up the southern face, serves as the primary water source for the Asheville region.

This is particularly noticeable from the range's eastern side, which rises over 4,500 feet (1,400 meters) above the Catawba River Valley and Interstate 40, providing some impressive mountain scenery.

The Black Mountains consist primarily of Precambrian gneiss and schists formed over a billion years ago from primordial sea sediments.

The more diverse Appalachian hardwoods, which include yellow poplar and various species of hickory, oak, and maple, dominate the slopes and stream valleys below 3,000 feet (910 m).

Mammals include black bears, white-tailed deer, raccoons, river otters, minks, bobcats, and the endangered northern flying squirrel.

[13] The Hernando de Soto expedition, which was attempting to travel from the Florida coast to the Pacific Ocean, is believed to have passed through the North Toe River valley in May 1540, and thus would have included the first Europeans to see the Black Mountains.

By 1785, however, the Cherokee had signed away ownership of the Black Mountains to the United States, and Euro-American settlers moved into the Cane and South Toe valleys shortly thereafter.

The early settlers farmed the river valleys and sold animal furs, ginseng, tobacco, liquor, and excess crops at markets in nearby Asheville.

[16] In 1789, French botanist André Michaux, who had been sent to America by the King of France to collect exotic plant specimens, made his first excursion into the Southern Appalachian Mountains, which included a brief trip to the Blacks.

Using a crude barometer, Mitchell gained measurements for Grandfather and Roan with apparent ease, although he struggled to discern which of the Blacks was the highest.

Nevertheless, Mitchell obtained a measurement of 6,476 feet (1,974 m) (later determined to be too low), placing the Blacks at a higher elevation than Mount Washington and thus the highest in the Eastern United States.

Several surveyors visited the Blacks in subsequent years, including Nehemiah Blackstock (1794–1880) in 1845, Arnold Guyot (1807–1884) in 1849, and Robert Gibbes in the early 1850s.

One evening, while attempting to reach the Cane River Valley, he slipped and fell into a gorge along Sugar Camp Fork, near the waterfall that now bears his name.

Vance convinced several mountain guides to change previous statements and claim the route they had taken actually led to Black Dome, rather than Mount Gibbes.

Clingman continued to deny that Mitchell had measured Black Dome first, but was unable to overcome the shift in public sentiment.

Between 1908 and 1912, northern lumber firms, namely Dickey and Campbell (later Perley and Crockett), Brown Brothers, Carolina Spruce, and Champion Fibre, bought up timber rights to most of the Black Mountains and began a series of massive logging operations in the area.

An increase in demand for red spruce during World War I led to the rapid deforestation of much of the spruce-fir forest in the higher elevations.

[24] Many North Carolinians, among them Governor Locke Craig and state forester John Simcox Holmes, were alarmed at the abusive logging practices that were stripping bare the Black Mountains.

Research is currently underway in releasing predator beetles that will, hopefully, eat enough adelgids to balance their population and allow the hemlocks to flourish.

Due to a lack of zoning laws, this has resulted in rapid development of ridgetop cabins, large second-homes on the lower ridges, and deforestation that threatens the natural beauty of the region.

2002–4),[28] enacted by the North Carolina General Assembly, is credited with reducing the amount of particulate and ozone pollution that had once threatened the views in the Black Mountains and throughout the Appalachians.