Alfred Reagan House and Tub Mill

Alfred Reagan House and Tub Mill are a pair of preserved historic buildings on the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail: the painted farmhouse sits across the road from a small creekside mill. This is a worthwhile short pause if you're already taking the drive, but a tiny site to save for the loop rather than plan a day around. Roadside parking is limited, so you may need to keep moving if the pull-off is full.

The tub mill used stream water to turn a turbine and grind corn and wheat into meal and flour. Look for the wooden flume, the creek below it, and the mill's exposed timber supports. For a photo, include the creek and flume with the building; they make the water-powered setup clearer than a straight-on shot of the mill alone.

Alfred Reagan bought 90 acres here in 1892 and added two neighboring tracts in 1907 and 1908. His home place eventually covered 134.5 acres, with about 35 acres cleared; corn was the main crop. Interviews about the farm also remembered livestock, fruit trees, Winter John apples, and Blue Concord grapes.

The house began as a one-story hewn-log cabin on stone piers, then its walls were raised to make two attic rooms. The resulting story-and-a-half house has a saddlebag layout, with two main rooms joined by a rear passage. Who built which piece is less certain: Alfred probably built the mill, and T. R. Myers may have built the house, although family accounts credit Reagan with both.

Roaring Fork is a 5.5-mile, narrow, winding one-way loop reached from Cherokee Orchard near Gatlinburg. You can't retrace the same road to leave. The route closes seasonally in winter, and snow, ice, or muddy conditions can cause other closures, so check the road status before setting out.