John P. Cable built this overshot grist mill in the late 1860s. It is the only mill remaining of several mills operated in Cades Cove before the national park was created. The mill is located near the Cades Cove Visitor Center about halfway around the eleven-mile one-way loop road that circles the cove.
An overshot mill utilizes a flume to redirect water from the stream to the mill. In this case, a long ditch leads to a 225-foot-long flume to bring the water from Mill Creek to a point above the 11-foot wheel and pour it into "buckets" built into the wheel. The water in the wheel causes a weight imbalance, forcing the wheel to turn. A series of gears, originally built of apple wood but later rebuilt with metal, is used to spin the runner stone just a fraction of an inch above the bed stone. By varying the distance between the two stones, the miller could create various grades of his product from cracked corn to corn meal to corn flour. Corn was the primary crop ground here, although some wheat may also have been ground. The miller was typically paid a one-eighth portion of the cornmeal that was produced.
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| Some of the blueprints created for the 2018 reconstruction of the water wheel |
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| Flume and water wheel |
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| View down the flume to the mill |
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| Cades Cove Visitor Center |
There is no entrance fee at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. However, a parking fee will be levied beginning March 1, 2023. The fee will be $5 for a daily tag, $15 for a seven-day tag, and $40 for an annual tag.
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park website is https://www.nps.gov/grsm/index.htm.
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