The Appalachian Mountains (French: les Appalaches) are a vast system of mountains in eastern North America.
The range is mostly located in the United States but extends into southeastern Canada, forming a zone, from 100 to 300 miles (160 to 480 km) wide, running from the island of Newfoundland 1,500 miles (2,400 km) south-westward to central Alabama in the United States (with foothills in northeastern Mississippi). The system is divided into a series of ranges, with the individual mountains averaging around 3,000 ft (900 m). The highest of the group is Mt. Mitchell in North Carolina (6,684 ft or 2,037m), which is the highest point in the United States east of the Mississippi River.
The term Appalachia refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range. Most broadly, it refers to the entire mountain range with its surrounding hills and the dissected plateau region. However, the term is often used more restrictively to refer to regions in the central and southern Appalachian Mountains, usually including areas in the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina, and sometimes extending as far south as northern Georgia and western South Carolina, as far north as Pennsylvania, and as far west as southern Ohio.
While exploring the northern coast of Florida in 1528, the members of the Narváez expedition, including Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, found a Native American town which they transliterated as Apalachen . This name and its pronunciation were applied to the Apalachee Indians, as well as a nearby body of water, now spelled Apalachee Bay, to the Apalachicola River, Apalachicola Bay, and the Apalachicola Indians, and to the city known as Apalachicola, Florida.