Nature
Willis Mountain is a narrow monadnock in Buckingham County, Virginia, rising steeply above the surrounding Piedmont as a resistant ridge of kyanite quartzite. About 2 miles long and divided by a low saddle, it includes Round Mountain on the south and a slightly higher northern summit with a fire lookout tower. Its hard rock has produced exposed ledges, crags, cliffs, and jagged weathered surfaces unlike the deeper saprolite common nearby. The mountain also contains Virginia’s largest kyanite quartzite deposit within the Willis Mountain belt. Reported in 1839 and mined since 1957, it remains both an important mineral site and a striking record of the region’s geological history.
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Virginia · United States