Phyllis Willet, age 9, of Black Mountain, North Carolina, for her question;

Is Old Grandfather the oldest mountain in the world?

The Blue Ridge Mountains and the Great Smokies smile down on Asheville, Old Grandfather, 5,964 feet high, is one of these mountain peaks. A little to the east of the old fella is Mount Mitchell, the highest peak in all the Appalachians. The Appalachians, Old Grandfather among them, are very old mountains indeed.

These beauties started to grow perhaps 200 million years ago, Old Grandfather is about the same age as his neighbors, Mount Mitchell, Bull Ruff in Mountain and Bluff Mountain. However, the northern Appalachians of New England were fully grown when these fellows were babies. They are at least 100 million years older. find the Laurentian Mountains of Canada are some 500 million years old.