The Old Mill’s story began nearly two centuries ago when local farmers with sacks of grain traveled to the newly built gristmill along the Little Pigeon River. Those trips to the mill resulted in meal and flour for cooking, and they also were opportunities to socialize and build community. In time, our town of Pigeon Forge was born.

Today, the Old Mill is one of the oldest continually operating gristmills in the country and one of the most photographed mills in America.

A westward-moving settler, Mordecai Lewis, leaves Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and settles in East Tennessee. John Sevier, the first governor of Tennessee, encouraged Virginians such as Lewis to come to this area following the Revolutionary War. In 1794, he was appointed Coroner of Sevier County as well as a Justice of the Peace.

Lewis makes his home along what we now know as the Little Pigeon River after receiving a land grant from Governor Blount, where he acquired a total of 151 acres along the river. His grandson would later build and operate the first gristmill.
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