Streams of the Smokies - Mingus Creek
Thursday, May 22, 2008 2:44 PM EDT

Mingus Creek is probably of greater interest to the antiquarian than the angler, thanks to the fact that it is rich in human history. It takes its name from John Jacob Mingus (circa 1774-1852), the first white settler in this area of the Oconaluftee watershed. Mingus, who moved to the region from his native Saxony (in modern Germany), purchased property from Felix Walker, a land speculator who probably had never even visited the region.

Interestingly, while this stream feeding Luftee from the west, along with the Mingus Lead, bears the pioneering settler's name, such was not always the case. Mingus Creek was originally known as Spillcorn Creek for Jim Spillcorn, who received a land grant here in 1805. It was decades later that the name of the stream was changed.

Today Mingus Creek is best known for the mill, still in operation, located a short ways upstream from its juncture with the Oconaluftee River. This mill, constructed in l886 by noted millwright Sion Thomas Early for a grandson of John Jacob Mingus to replace an existing overshot mill, has a number of distinctive features. It has a metal turbine, powered by water channeled down a sluice, instead of the traditional wooden wheel. At the time it was constructed it was one of the most advanced mills in the Smokies, capable of grinding impressive amounts of grain.

For several generations, indeed, basically until the coming of the park, it served the milling needs of folks living all up and down Luftee Valley. It eventually closed in 1940, but after being refurbished was put back into operation in 1968. It is a splendid example of Appalachian folkways, and anyone who hasn't visited it during operating hours owes it to themselves to do so.

Most of the Mingus Creek drainage is served by a trail which begins at the parking lot immediately downstream from Mingus Mill and terminates some 5.6 miles later at Newton Bald (on arrival at the Newton Bald Trail you have the option of linking up with the Thomas Divide Trail by turning left or turning right where, 4.7 miles later, you will reach Highway 441 immediately opposite the Smokemont Campground. Mingus Creek Trail follows the stream quite closely to the point where Madcap Branch enters from the west and Mingus Creek makes a 90-degree turn to the north. From there to Newton Bald it follows the Madcap Branch drainage.

Much of the way the trail is actually an old gravel service road. Just under half a mile along the way it passes a Park Service firing range, and at the mile mark you come to the old water treatment plant which once was the primary water source for the town of Cherokee. For decades Mingus Creek was closed to fishing because of the water plant, but such is no longer the case.

On a personal basis, my most noteworthy fishing experience connected with Mingus Creek didn't actually happen on the stream. Instead, it occurred in the big, beautiful pool in Luftee where Mingus Creek enters it. There, in either 1958 or 1959, my regular fishing buddy, Bill Rolen, caught a vividly colored speckled trout that measured a full 12 inches. We figured it had made its way down Mingus Creek to the big stream. Whatever the case, it remains one of the biggest natives I've ever seen in the Smokies.

I've fished Mingus Creek a few times, and in some ways it is an exercise in frustration thanks to extensive stretches enveloped by rhododendron to the point where casting is an impossibility. On the other hand, the same situation exists on Indian Creek, and I cherish that little stream. Mingus Creek is primarily, if not exclusively, a rainbow stream, although it's possible you'll find some specks in its headwaters and some browns in its lower reaches.

Any fisherman who does visit Mingus Creek needs to absorb some of the history which surrounds him. In addition to the mill there's a slave cemetery (the slaves probably belonged to the Mingus family) on a hillside just north of the entrance to the Mingus Mill parking area. A bit farther north, in each case quite close to Highway 441, are the Floyd and Queen Cemeteries. According to the USGS map for the Smokemont quadrangle, there is also a cemetery, served by a disused jeep trail, some two miles up Mingus Creek. I have not visited this site.

By all means set aside a day for fishing Mingus Creek, but when you do so, take time to ponder its human history. The observant eye will notice where old farms were sited along the drainage, a quiet visit to one or more of the cemeteries mentioned above is always a good time for contemplation, and Mingus Mill has to be reckoned as one of the true wonders of the Smokies.

One final feature, in its own fashion as much a link to a world we have lost as long abandoned farmsteads or the final resting places of hardy souls from yesteryear, deserves mention. According to Ken Wise, in his splendid book “Hiking Trails of the Great Smoky Mountains” (sadly, now out of print), there is a live and bearing American chestnut tree just to the right of the Mingus Creek Trail at a point where it emerges from a rhododendron tunnel on the ridgeline leading to Newton Bald. The tree is close to the terminus of the Mingus Creek Trail at Newton Bald.

- Jim Casada

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