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The Allegheny Mountain Range —also spelled Alleghany, Allegany and, informally, the Alleghenies—is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the eastern United States and Canada where it posed a significant barrier to land travel in less technologically advanced eras. It is a barrier range that has a northeast–southwest orientation and runs for about 400 miles (640 km) from north-central Pennsylvania, through western Maryland and eastern West Virginia, to southwestern Virginia. The Alleghenies comprise the rugged western-central portion of the Appalachians. They rise to approximately 4,862 feet (1,483 m) in northeastern West Virginia. In the east, they are dominated by a high, steep escarpment known as the Allegheny Front. In the west, they slope down into the closely associated Allegheny Plateau which extends into Ohio and Kentucky. The principal settlements of the Alleghenies are Johnstown, Pennsylvania and Cumberland, Maryland. ==Name== The name is derived from the Allegheny River, which drains only a small portion of the Alleghenies in west-central Pennsylvania. The meaning of the word, which comes from the Lenape (Delaware) Indians, is not definitively known but is usually translated as "fine river". A Lenape legend tells of an ancient tribe called the "Allegewi" who lived on the river and were defeated by the Lenape.〔Stewart, George R. (1967), ''Names on the Land'', Boston.〕 ''Allegheny'' is the early French spelling (as in Allegheny River, which was once part of New France), and ''Allegany'' is closer to the early English spelling (as in Allegany County, Maryland or Alleghany County, Virginia). The word "Allegheny" was once commonly used to refer to the whole of what are now called the Appalachian Mountains. John Norton used it (spelled variously) around 1810 to refer to the mountains in Tennessee and Georgia.〔Norton, Major John (1816), (''The Journal of Major John Norton'' (Toronto: Champlain Society, Reprinted 1970) )〕 Around the same time, Washington Irving proposed renaming the United States either "Appalachia" or "Alleghania".〔 In 1861, Arnold Henry Guyot published the first systematic geologic study of the whole mountain range.〔Guyot, Arnold, "On the Appalachian Mountain System", ''American Journal of Science and Arts'', Second Series, XXXI, (March 1861), 167-171.〕 His map labeled the range as the "Alleghanies", but his book was titled ''On the Appalachian Mountain System''. As late as 1867, John Muir—in his book ''A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf''—used the word "Alleghanies" in referring to the ''southern'' Appalachians. There was no general agreement about the "Appalachians" versus the "Alleghanies" until the late 19th century.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Allegheny Mountains」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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