Mount Monadnock - a peak that an annoying misfortune made famous (11 photos)

Known as one of the most popular mountains in the world, this empty peak has been left forever barren thanks to a fire set to kill wolves.





One of the most popular mountains in the world, Mount Monadnock welcomes many tourists to its summit. But it has remained forever barren and lifeless after early settlers burned it down several times.



Mountaineers and New Englanders alike flock to Mount Monadnock, which rises just under a half-mile above sea level, making it the highest mountain in Cheshire County, New Hampshire. It's a four-season destination for hiking, climbing, camping, and skiing.





The name comes from an Abenaki word meaning "that which stands alone," and is used more generally to refer to any isolated mountain, many miles from its neighbors, that is formed of harder rock at its summit than the eroded soil around it. Other mountains in New England also bear the name: one in Vermont and several—Pac Monadnock, North Pac Monadnock, Little Monadnock—in southern New Hampshire.



Unlike other New England mountains at or above Monadnock, Monadnock has a sharply ragged tree line and vegetation, the result of a pair of major fires that left the summit completely bare and bald.



The first was set in 1801 to clear the slopes for pasture, destroying the virgin red spruce forest. A few years later, a second fire was set by local ranchers. They thought there were wolves lurking on the summit. The fire burned out of control and destroyed all remaining vegetation and topsoil on the peak, leaving the granite rocks completely exposed.



Now, only the occasional krummholtz - a small, deformed growth of vegetation - are visible above the tree line.



Despite the history of the peak, or perhaps because of it, an average of 125,000 people climb it every year, making it one of the most visited peaks in the world.