Looming above the town of Poteau is a hill with dozens of towers and antennas protruding from its relatively flat top. Take a short drive up and visitors will be rewarded with great views of the surrounding area. 

The claim of being the “world’s highest hill” is predicated on a less-than-bulletproof definition employed by the UK’s government, which states that the cutoff between being a hill and being a mountain is the 2,000-meter threshold. By this logic, anything taller than Cavanal Hill stops being a hill. The USGS and other bodies, however, offer very different definitions of the hill. 

Regardless of the extent to which Cavanal Hill has earned its claim to fame, it is still a remarkably tall geological feature. The sign at its base claims that it soars to 1,999 feet above the ground, a number that seems to have been chosen for dramatic effect but is likely close to accurate.