Howard Knob is a prominent mountain above Boone in North Carolina’s High Country, rising 4,396 feet above sea level and nearly 1,000 feet above the town and Appalachian State University. Named for early settler Benjamin Howard, a British loyalist and contemporary of Daniel Boone, it has long served as both a lookout and a focus of development because of its sweeping views. The mountain became locally famous in the late 1970s as the site of MOD-1, an experimental wind turbine that generated troubling low-frequency vibrations and other complaints before being dismantled in 1983. Protected in part by a 2004 conservation agreement, it remains Boone’s dramatic natural backdrop and viewpoint.

Boone, North Carolina · USA