Long’s Mill and the Chickamauga Trace

Long’s Mill and the Chickamauga Trace. Savage Gulf State Natural Area. , A center for 19th Century commerce , This is the site of an early grist mill on Firescald Creek that was later converted into the Greeter family’s first lumber milling operation. Foundations still remain of what was once a busy venture for local commerce., Over time, this mill was known by several names, usually those of its proprietors: first, Hunter’s Mill; then Long’s Mill. Both Hunter and Long, and later, the Greeters used this mill to grind grain. They made money by providing this service for area farmers, who would bring their grain harvest to the mill to be processed. Wheat became flour; corn became cornmeal., This was not an isolated mill on a creek, however. Historical maps show a Native American trail, the Chickamauga Trace, crossing Firescald Creek either at or near this location. The Chickamauga Trace was a well-known path to early European settlers, having already been in use for hundreds of years. Until the 1840s, when the new McMinnville-to-Chattanooga stagecoach road opened, this Trace was the only road crossing the southern Cumberland Plateau., Even with the opening of the new “stage road”, the Chickamauga Trace was not forgotten. In 1895, when the map at left was produced, this historic trail was still a well-worn corridor for commerce between Beersheba Springs, Altamont and Tracy City. For decades, it continued to be a convenient location for the community’s milling business., As a result, this section of the Chickamauga Trace came to be know as Hunter’s Mill or Long’s Mill Road. In fact, an 1892 property deed mentions the “Hunter and Greeter” property, and the property boundary description includes survey points that reference “the Hunter Mill Road”., In 1895, John Geroge Greeter became interested in using the water-power of his father’s grist mill to cut timber into boards that he could use to make wagons and caskets, his vocation at the time. John purchased a water-driven sash saw, installed it at the mill, and began producing board lumber. This change in technology ultimately allowed the Greeter family to venture into the lumber manufacturing business., As the Greeter family’s lumber business prospered, they abandoned the sometimes less-than-reliable water power of Firescald Creek in favor of a steam-powered saw, and moved the lumber milling operation from here into Altamont, where Greeter Lumber Company had room to grow., [Captions]: , Part of an 1895 topographic map, showing roads of the day. The presumed historic route of the Chickamauga Trace is in red; the mill site is the green dot. , This is a 2010 photo of a portion of the Chickamauga Trace (improved to be a wagon road) that still exists near Beersheba Springs. The road that passes Long’s Mill was probably very similar in appearance. , ABOVE: Two views of Long’s Mill, after the Greeter family took ownership. The crude dam impounded enough water to be diverted into a raceway along the shoreline that powered the grist mill, and later, the first Greeter sawmill., BELOW: Two views of the Greeter Lumber operation around 1941, after it was moved from Firescald Creek to near Altamont and converted to a steam-powered sawmill.