Tricorner Knob's remote situation in the dense Southern Appalachian spruce-fir forest of the Eastern Smokies has left it largely untouched by human history. Arnold Guyot measured its elevation on his survey of the crest of the Smokies in 1859, placing Tricorner's elevation at . Other than surveyors and the occasional naturalist, the mountain was devoid of human visitors until a segment of the Appalachian Trail was constructed across its western slope in 1935. An isolated spring on the mountain's southern slope was the key reason behind its selection for the back country campsite where the Tricorner Knob Shelter sits today. Laura Thornborough, a writer who visited the mountain in the late 1930s, called Tricorner Knob one of the last true wilderness areas, where one can commune with nature and leave the cares of the world behind.