{"id":50809,"date":"2026-04-17T19:43:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T19:43:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/50809\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T19:43:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T19:43:16","slug":"is-black-elk-peak-the-highest-point-between-the-rocky-mountains-and-the-alps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/50809\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Black Elk Peak the highest point between the Rocky Mountains and the Alps?"},"content":{"rendered":"

(South Dakota News Watch<\/a>) – No.<\/p>\n

Black Elk Peak in the Black Hills is not the highest point between the Rocky Mountains and the Alps in Europe.<\/p>\n

Black Elk Peak, which was officially named Harney Peak until 2016, is 7,231 feet above sea level. It is the highest point east of the Rockies in the United States.<\/p>\n

But several mountains taller than Black Elk Peak lie between North America and Europe in the Northern Hemisphere. Greenland has multiple peaks higher than Black Elk Peak, including Gunnbj\u00f8rn Fjeld at 12,119 feet. Mount Teide in Spain\u2019s Canary Islands rises to 12,198 feet.<\/p>\n

Versions of the claim appear in various descriptions of the summit. U.S. Forest Service materials describing the historic fire lookout once referred to the peak as the highest point between the Rocky Mountains and the Pyrenees, and some travel guides have repeated similar wording using the Alps.<\/p>\n

This fact brief responds to conversations such as <\/a>this one.<\/a><\/p>\n

Sources<\/p>\n

SDPB, New Survey, New Elevation for Black Elk Peak<\/a><\/p>\n

Black Hills Visitor, From Harney to Black Elk Peak: Evolution of a Name<\/a><\/p>\n

ThoughCo, History and geography of Greenland<\/a><\/p>\n

UNESCO, Teide National Park<\/a><\/p>\n

Travel South Dakota, Black Elk Peak<\/a><\/p>\n

Forest Service, Harney (Black Elk Peak) fire lookout<\/a><\/p>\n

The Adventure Collective, Summiting Black Elk Peak: Conquer the Highest Point Between the Rockies and the Alps<\/a><\/p>\n

South Dakota News Watch<\/a> partners with Gigafact<\/a> to publish fact briefs that refute or confirm a claim with supporting information and additional evidence and context. Send questions or feedback to news@sdnewswatch.org<\/a>. Submit a question for us to answer on the tipline<\/a>. <\/p>\n

South Dakota News Watch is an independent nonprofit. Read, donate and subscribe for free at sdnewswatch.org<\/a>. Contact freelance reporter Michael Klinski: michael.klinski@sdnewswatch.org.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(South Dakota News Watch) – No. Black Elk Peak in the Black Hills is not the highest point…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[16],"tags":[12132,50,29033,5897,29034,22155,1716,17509,29035,29036,18502,1717,1240,5902,1655,17784,11349,21389,21189,29037,5905,70,29038,9654,29039,2200,1720,1721,1722,29040,29041,68,67,5908,1245,5910,22164,1723,1724,2403,29042,20956,19237,4700,17138,23572,11363,1726,29043,5911,29044],"class_list":["post-50809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alps","tag-agreement","tag-alps","tag-attorney","tag-auction","tag-auctioneer","tag-authority","tag-background","tag-black","tag-block","tag-brown","tag-chairman","tag-concept","tag-court","tag-courtroom","tag-crime","tag-criminal","tag-dark","tag-decision","tag-divorce","tag-equality","tag-gavel","tag-government","tag-guilt","tag-guilty","tag-hammer","tag-innocence","tag-judge","tag-judgment","tag-judicial","tag-judiciary","tag-juridical","tag-justice","tag-law","tag-lawyer","tag-legal","tag-legislation","tag-light","tag-litigation","tag-mallet","tag-object","tag-prosecution","tag-punishment","tag-rights","tag-sale","tag-symbol","tag-system","tag-table","tag-trial","tag-verdict","tag-wood","tag-wooden"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}