Great Smoky Mountains (day 2 and last) (part 1)

 Tomorrow is travel day. I've decided to go to a place that is the opposite of where I am now. I'll be heading to the North Carolina coast. It will take me 3 driving days to get there with two overnight stops in between. If you want to google it, I'm heading to North River Campground in Shawboro, North Carolina. I plan to stay there at least 3 days to explore the coast then head north (maybe).

The post for today will have about the same amount of pictures as yesterday but with more words. I may repeat some of the pictures by accident.

Today I visited a working Grist Mill in the National Park.

I took a picture of the entry plague that details information about the Mill so I wouldn't have to type it. The mill was actually milling corn and the mill master was there to answer my questions. I was lucky in that no one else was visiting, so I had the place to myself for about 30 minutes.

The path to the mill led into the woods and I wasn't sure how far it was to the mill. I was a little worried by the water fountain at the beginning. Did that mean everyone should be well-hydrated before starting out on this path?

I chanced it and hit the path with confidence. Soon a wooden bridge appeared over the creek. I wondered who had inspected that bridge and when? I quickly looked under it and it appeared structurally sound, so I crossed.

After a nice walk on a beautiful morning, the mill house appeared. It was a two story structure built on a questionable foundation.

I didn't notice the foundation was a pile of rocks until I was leaving. I guess I should have looked before I went inside.

This picture shows the corn being milled. You can see the corn slowly falling into the center of the mill wheels. The Mill-Master took 1/8 of the mill as payment for milling.

The mill wheels shown in the picture to the right are for wheat. The man said they came from France and that no wheat mill stones were every made in the U. S. Something about the hardness of the stone and wheat. I took his word for it and will maybe google it later. :) The pretty part of the works is outside where the sluice feeds the turbine.

This is the elevated sluice feeding water to the mill.

This is the sluice built into the ground using cut timber as sides and bottom.

This is the upstream sluice gate.

And this is a picture of a stream. I'm not sure if it was at the mill site or at some other place. I put it here cause I like the way it looks and what the heck, it could be part of the stream feeding the mill, who knows.

 



I decided to split the post today into two parts. I considered putting them both together but logically they should be split.

It was a nice visit with the mill master and an interesting tour.

Ya'll take care of each other. Cya.