Mineral resources of the Craggy Mountain Wilderness Study Area, Buncombe County, North Carolina

The Craggy Mountain Wilderness Study Area covers about 550 hectares of the Pisgah National Forest in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina (fig. 1). The area is 21 km northeast of Asheville, Buncombe County, N.C., and 11 km southwest of Mount Mitchell, the highest point in eastern North America. The study area is bounded on the southeast by the Blue Ridge Parkway, on the northeast by Bullhead Ridge, and on the southwest and west by Big Fork Ridge (Plate 1b). It includes all of the Craggy Mountain scenic area established by the Forest Service in 1961 and some additional land west of Bearwallow Branch and along the middle part of Carter Creek for a short distance beyond the mouth of Peach Orchard Creek.