Smoky Mountain Mingus Mill Volunteers Needed
Smoky Mountain Mingus Mill Volunteers Needed. Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials are asking for volunteers to provide interpretive historic and orientation information to national park visitors at the historic Mingus Mill in the Oconaluftee valley. The mill is found a half mile north of the GSMNP Oconaluftee Visitor Center in North Carolina. Volunteers and millers will share insights on the unusual turbine wheel of Minus Mill and the historic role of milling in the Smoky Mountains.
Mingus Mill was built in 1886 and provided service for the residents of the Oconaluftee Valley. Visitors will get an up close look at the inner workings of the mill which could grind a variety of products including corn, wheat and rye. The turbine drive design produced cornmeal and flour in a fraction of the time needed by other area mills.
Cades Cove Car Ban Ends
With the tunnel reopening the car ban comes to an end .
Cades Cove Car Ban Ends. Cades Cove has been closed for visitors for two months but that ends when the Laurel Creek Road (a seven-mile main access road from the Townsend Wye to Cades Cove) reopens this weekend on March 1, 2020. Motorists, bikers and hikers have been shut out of the cove since repair work began January 5th on the 1948-era Bote Mountain Tunnel. Most of the work is complete, but some intermittent single lane closures are scheduled between March 1 and June 15 to finish repairs on the vintage tunnel and to re-pave.
Closure at Cades Cove Campground continues through March 5. However Elkmont and Smokemont Campgrounds are open to winter campers.
Cades Cove has a rich history. For hundreds of years the Cherokee hunted in the cove. Archeologist have found no evidence of major settlements, and so it appears that it was just that – a hunting ground.
Dan Lawson homesite.
