Cavanal Hill, Mountain in LeFlore County, United States.
Cavanal Hill, officially Cavanal Mountain, rises to 2,385 feet (727 m) above sea level near Poteau, Oklahoma. Its summit stands 1,960 feet (600 m) above the Poteau River three miles to the north. A 4.5-mile blacktopped road leads to the top, where visitors can see Mount Magazine in Arkansas on a clear day.
French explorers travelling the area in the 18th century named the landmark, and fur trappers later camped at its base and called the spot Poteau, for "Post". Thomas Nuttall studied plant life here in 1819. In territorial times the hill lay on the border of Skullyville and Sugar Loaf counties in the Choctaw Nation's Moshulatubbee District.
The name comes from the French caverneux, "cavernous," as recorded by Oklahoma historian Muriel H. Wright; French explorers of the 18th century gave the landmark this name. In territorial times the hill lay on the border between Skullyville and Sugar Loaf counties, two constituent counties of the Moshulatubbee District of the Choctaw Nation.
A 4.5-mile blacktopped road leads to the summit, where visitors can take in views of the Poteau River Valley; on a clear day Mount Magazine in Arkansas is reportedly visible. The road up follows much of the original railroad line that served the Witteville mines.
The sign at the base reads "'World's Highest Hill' – Elevation: 1,999 feet", yet the summit actually stands 2,385 feet above sea level. The claim rests on a definition of a mountain as a feature 2,000 feet or more above its base; the drop to the Poteau River is 1,960 feet. The summit's official name is Cavanal Mountain, not Hill.
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