Elisha Mitchell (August 19, 1793 – June 27, 1857) was an American educator, geologist and Presbyterian minister. As a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in 1835, he measured the height of Mt. Mitchell. Mt. Mitchell is the highest point east of the Mississippi River. It is located in North Carolina and is 6,684 feet (2,037 m) high. Elisha Mitchell fell to his death at nearby Mitchell Falls in 1857, having returned to verify his earlier measurements, which were challenged by one of his students. In 1881-82 the U.S. Geological Survey upheld Mitchell's measurement of the highest peak in the eastern US and officially named it Mount Mitchell.
The Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society, published by the North Carolina Academy of Science, was founded in his honor in 1883.
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Famous quotes containing the words elisha and/or mitchell:
“...some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, “Go away, baldhead! Go away, baldhead!””
—Bible: Hebrew, 2 Kings 2:23.
Elisha--proving that baldness has been a source of sensitivity for centuries, Elisha cursed them and they died.
“We are stardust,
We are golden,
And we got to get ourselves
Back to the garden.”
—Joni Mitchell (b. 1943)