Pigeon Forge Mill

The Pigeon Forge Mill is situated on the east bank of the West Fork of the Little Pigeon River, which flows down out of the Great Smoky Mountains to the south and passes through Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge before joining the Little Pigeon River proper in Sevierville a few miles downstream from the mill. The mill is accessible via Old Mill Avenue, which intersects US 441 (Parkway, Light #7) near the center of Pigeon Forge. A small plaza of shops, known as the Old Mill Square, has developed in the mill's immediate vicinity. ==History==

The Pigeon Forge Mill is located on land that was originally part of a plot of land granted in 1810 to Mordecai Lewis (1751–1817), a Revolutionary War veteran from Virginia. Before his death, Lewis may have erected a tub mill along the river (no longer standing). In 1817, Lewis's son-in-law, Isaac Love, built the iron forge for which the city would eventually be named. Taking advantage of a Tennessee state law that allowed tax incentives for the creation of iron works on unfarmable land, Love acquired over of the surrounding country. Love mined brown hematite ore in the hills northeast of the forge, and transported the ore to the forge using ox-drawn wagons. The forge included a bloomery furnace which converted the ore into pig iron, and a trip hammer that molded the pig iron into bar iron. In 1830, Love and his sons built a large gristmill adjacent to the iron furnace, which was used by local farmers to grind grain. After the war, Trotter expanded the mill, most notably adding a 60-rpm, 30-horsepower wooden wheel (the current breastshot wheel was a later addition), and establishing a sawmill at the site. The mill was remodeled several times throughout the 20th century by subsequent owners to cater to the tourist traffic along US-441. ==Design==

The Pigeon Forge Mill is a three-story structure supported by by yellow poplar logs, which in turn rest on several pillars of large river rock (now reinforced by concrete). These pillars have helped preserve the mill through several disastrous floods, most notably floods in 1875 and 1920, both of which washed away bridges at the mill site. The interior of the mill consists of hand-hewn hemlock and oak walls, held together by hickory pegs, and the millhouse's exterior walls have been weatherboarded with yellow poplar boards. The floor consists of nailed pine boards. The elongated section on the north side of the millhouse was built in the latter half of the 19th century to house the mill's new sawmill. The Pigeon Forge Mill makes use of both the breatshot wheel that characterizes its exterior and several smaller tub wheels. Water is diverted to the wheels via the milldam, which spans the length of the river. The mill uses two two-ton French burr millstones for grinding. ==See also==