* HUNTING OLD MILLS

Bristol Tenn Mill

Shankle Mill on Steeles Creek

As I wander through the mountains, knobs, and hillsides of my region I sometimes encounter the remnants of a bygone era in the form of old stone foundations and piers along the creek banks. This is all that remains of what was once a means of making a living in those older and "more simple" times. Whether the foundations represent a grist mill, a saw mill, or a distillery is not known by me. It is also possible a forge or iron furnace once occupied the site instead. I find them intriguing and am somewhat amazed at the size of the stones that were placed entirely by only manual labor.

Many of these mills used mill stones of assorted types depending upon what they were grinding. Most of these stones have vanished - taken out by loggers or other individuals. I have located several which are pictured on the next page, and you may be surprised at what they were later utilized for.

Last Friday, (9May09), Dallas Bridgeman and I got on his 4-wheelers and headed back into the backwoods and hollows of the North Fork of the Holston. Dallas said he'd seen an old mill foundation back in there and I wanted some pix, plus we both wanted to see if any bottles,relics, etc could be found.

We followed a winding logging road up and down and through the woods. After a while we arrived at the logging road that led off the top of the ridge and downward towards the bottom of the hollow to what topo maps had indicated was known as Gobble Branch. Eventually, we stopped and parked the 4-wheelers as Dallas wasn't sure his could make the climb back out. We proceeded to the creek bottom & old mill site on foot.

It was cool, damp, shady, and totally isolated down in that hollow , with the only sound being the rippling and occasional roaring of the creek over scattered rocky falls ,which was high now due to all the recent rains. After a bit we arrived at the site and it's size both impressed and stilled me. As we began looking around we could see huge stones had been stacked in piers and walls and placed in various locations about the creekbanks and in the creek itself. Some had washed away and lodged downstream but one could easily see how huge this old mill had been when it was operating.

Dallas showed me an old iron section of a gear that once drove the mill. He noted that the millstone was hauled out by loggers decades ago. We didn't find much in the way of bottles, etc, just some broken glass & china near where a house once stood. All traces of the house had long since been obliterated, but Dallas said a family of Fields once lived there, before moving closer to Rich Valley Rd.

We returned to the 4-wheelers , turned around, and slipped and slid our way back up the side of the ridge and onto the top. At the top, I paused to look upon a higher section of the ridgeline at an old cemetery Dallas, & our cousin Tony Helton , had found while logging. It had about a dozen gravesites, but only 3 with legible markers. Two were Hammonds and one was a Price. No idea who the others were, perhaps Gobbles who once operated the mill, members of the Fields family, or someone else.

Dallas & I discussed returning to the millsite at another time to further explore. I was thinking I'd return anytime simply for the sheer delight of being alone in the quiet wilderness.

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Sources - Bibliography

i)      Library of King College, Bristol,Tenn. - Newspaper Microfilms

ii)     Bristol,TN-VA Public Library - Newspaper Microfilms &  City Directories

iii)     1904 Bristol Herald Industrial Supplement

iv)     Bristol-Goodson Industry & Resources in 1885 -W.F.Henry/Reporter

v)    Witness To An Epoch - Chas.J. Harkrader

vi)     Double Destiny   - Robert Loving

vii)    Historic Sites of Sullivan County - Muriel Spoden

viii)   Bristol Tennessee-Virginia : A History - V.N. "Bud" Phillips

ix)     Spirits & Medicinal Bottles of Bristol, Tenn.-Va.   - Charlie Barnette

x)       The Passing Years   - Bristol Historical Association

xi)      City of Bristol @ 1915

xii)     A Pictorial History - Bristol Historical Association

xiii)    Whiskey, An American Pictorial History - Oscar Getz

xiv)    Prohibition, 13 Years That Changed America - Edward Behr

xv)     The Shadow Of The Bottle - Review & Herald Publishing Co.

xvi)    Historic Sullivan - Oliver Taylor

xvii)   One Year At A Time - Bristol - 1907 - Lonnie & Kim Blevins

xviii)   Honoring Our Heritage: Faces & Places From The Past -

                       Lonnie & Kim Blevins and Roy & Carolyn Williams

xvix)   Between the States: Bristol Tennessee - Virginia During the Civil War - V.N. "Bud" Phillips

xx)      Pioneers in Paradise - Bristol, Tenn-Va. - V.N. "Bud" Phillips

xxi)     A Good Place to Live - Bristol, Tenn-Va. - V.N. "Bud" Phillips

*** NOTE:

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