The Appalachian Mountains are a great highland system of North America, the eastern counterpart of the Rocky Mountains. Extending for almost 2,000 miles from the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador to central Alabama in the United States, the Appalachian Mountains form a natural barrier between the eastern Coastal Plain and the vast Interior Lowlands of North America. As a result, they have played a vital role in the settlement and development of the entire continent. They combine a heritage of natural beauty and a distinctive regional culture with contemporary problems of economic deprivation and environmental deterioration.

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica