Short Mountain

A noted feature of the Eastern Highland Rim landscape of Middle Tennessee is Short Mountain. Located in northeastern Cannon County, the mountain looms above adjacent portions of DeKalb and Warren Counties as well. Capped by Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks that have prevented its erosion, Short Mountain is a monadnock, an erosional remnant from an older landscape when the Cumberland Plateau extended further to the west. The highest point of the Eastern Highland Rim at 2,074 feet in elevation, Short Mountain now rises alone above the Central Basin, twenty miles to the west of the Cumberland Plateau’s current edge. The mountain consists of several truncated and flattened conical projections and is primarily drained by Mountain Creek. Other scattered knobs within the Central Basin have a similar origin.

Several hundred acres on Short Mountain are designated as a state natural area and are overseen by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.