John Byrd built the first mill on this site near the head of Flat Creek. It is believed to have been a tub mill.

Just another mill enthusiast passing along another mill...Forbidden Caverns Mill. Earthly Body Photography.

The mechanism, penstock or sluice, for bringing water to the wheel is no longer in place.

The mill is situated very close to the road as many mills were, more evident as roads were widened and paved.

The structure is a very simple large room on the lower level where the grinding was done; then one or several rooms on the second story where the flour or meal was further cleaned and refined and perhaps being bagged on the first floor, gravity bringing the product down.

The gearing coming from the outside waterwheel, being transfered by beveled gears to the main shafts to turn each set of stones.

The two sets of stone for grinding located on the raised platform. Customarily, one set ground cron for meal and the other ground wheat and other grains for flour. Later one or both were probably converted to animal feed production.

The present mill is reported to have been built in 1870, not 1880, by Elbert and William Early. It originally used a wooden wheel that was replaced with the present wheel in 1941. *Update: Several corrections of his family's mill, when built & never used as a residence, were provided by John M. Thornton 06/28/2011*

The mill was then used as a residence after it quit grinding. In 2008 the mill housed "Grist Mill Primitives" a craft shop. In Sept of 2010 it was vacant.GPS: 35' 54.64'N, 83' 21.62'W 1,125' elevation Chestnut Hill Quadrangle