Explore the Mingus Mill in Great Smoky Mountains

The Mountain Farm Museum is a unique collection of farm buildings that are assembled in one locations from around the park. Visitors can explore a log farmhouse, barn, apple house, springhouse, and a working blacksmith shop to gain an insight into how families might have lived 100 years ago. In the late 19th century, most of the structures were built and moved here in the 1950s.

The Davis House offers a rare opportunity to see a log house built from chestnut wood before the chestnut blight in our forests in the 1930s and early 1940s died of the American Chestnut. The museum is adjacent to the visitor center of Oconaluftee.

This is a great place to stop and watch a historic mill in operation. There is a short walk from the parking lot to the mill. Inside, a mill worker will explain how corn is ground into cornmeal. Outside, a mill race carries water to the mill for the various parts to grind the corn. Visitors can buy bags of cornmeal. The place wasn't too busy when we were there. The Mountain Farm Museum is about a half mile away, another worthwhile stop.