<P> The Southern Appalachian spruce - fir forest which covers Clingmans Dome occurs only at the highest elevations in the southeastern United States, and has more in common with forests at northern latitudes than with the forests in the adjacent valleys . Clingmans Dome stands prominently above the surrounding terrain, rising nearly 5,000 feet (1,500 m) from base to summit . The forest on and around Clingmans Dome has experienced a large die - off of Fraser fir caused by the non-native insect, balsam woolly adelgid . </P> <P> The Cherokee name for Clingmans Dome was Kuwa'hi, or "mulberry place ." According to a Cherokee myth recorded by ethnologist James Mooney in the late 19th century, the mountain was the home of the White Bear, the great chief of all bears, and the location of one of the bears' councilhouses . The enchanted lake of Ataga'hi ("Gall Place"), the waters of which could cure wounded bears, was believed by the Cherokee to be located somewhere between Clingmans Dome and the headwaters of the Oconaluftee River to the east . </P> <P> In 1789, an act passed by the North Carolina legislature ceded what is now Tennessee to the federal government . This act fixed a portion of the boundary between the two along the crest of the "Great Iron or Smoky Mountains," which would have included the mountain now known as Clingmans Dome . </P> <P> The mountain was dubbed "Smoky Dome" by American settlers moving in from other areas . In 1859, the mountain was renamed by Arnold Guyot for compatriot Thomas Lanier Clingman (1812--1897), an American Civil War general who explored the area extensively in the 1850s and then spent many years promoting it . Guyot named the mountain for Clingman because of an argument between Clingman and a professor at the University of North Carolina, Elisha Mitchell, over which mountain was actually the highest in the region . Mitchell contended that a peak by the name of Black Dome (now known as Mount Mitchell) was the highest, while Clingman asserted that Smoky Dome was the true highest peak . Guyot determined that Black Dome was 39 feet (12 m) higher than Smoky Dome . </P>

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