High Knob is the peak of Stone Mountain, that forms part of the border between Scott County and Wise County, Virginia, near the city of Norton that rises to above mean sea level. Location High Knob is found on the western front range of the Appalachian Mountains, along the mountainous southeastern edge of the Cumberland Plateau of Southwest Virginia. It is unique to Virginia in containing both Appalachian Plateau and Ridge and Valley topography; although it is largely a karstic landform of the Ridge and Valley Province. High Knob stretches across portions of southern Wise County, northern Scott County, and the northeastern tip of Lee County. It is a significant physical feature in Virginia and is among the widest singular mountains in the southern Appalachians, being locally greater than 13 miles ( 21 km ) wide from base to base and more than long. It represents the "pivot point" of the Cumberland Mountain Overthrust Block. (first described in notable detail during the 1920s and 1930s by geologists Charles Butts and John Rich). Although some lower in elevation than the Mount Rogers highcountry to the east (Mount Rogers is the highest peak in Virginia), the terrain surrounding the High Knob of Stone Mountain forms a true highcountry with respect to the western slopes of the Appalachians in Virginia (i.e., the Cumberland Mountains). Features The area around High Knob is dominant structural feature of the Powell Valley Anticline of the Cumberland Mountain Overthrust Block. With its adjoining faults (Hunter Valley-Clinchport system), this region possesses the greatest concentration of significant caves in Virginia. The summit of High Knob in particular exerts a significant impact upon the climate of Southwest Virginia and surrounding areas, being one of the rainiest and snowiest locations in both Virginia and the southern Appalachians. This orographically forced climate has, through the vastness of time, worked in intimate union with the geology and topography to create a richly diverse landscape possessing vast biological diversity. High Knob unofficially holds the record for the most snow ever measured in Virginia during a single season, with during the 1995–96 winter. During a typical year, of total precipitation falls across the area, to make it one of the wettest areas north of the Great Smokies, and the wettest in Virginia for which there are available records. Significant additional moisture contributions occur from fog drip off trees and rime deposition on trees, with many days