About Alfred Reagan Place
Most of the buildings you pass in the Smokies are log, weathered grey, and low. Alfred Reagan's house is a frame house with paint on it, and that alone tells you something about the man who lived here.
The man and his farm
Alfred Reagan was a farmer, blacksmith and storekeeper on Roaring Fork in the decades before the national park. He did more than raise corn: he worked iron, kept a shop and ran a mill. A house built with sawn lumber and painted was a mark of that standing. Compared with the Ephraim Bales cabin earlier on the loop, Reagan's place looks like the home of someone with money coming in and a reason to show it.
The tub mill
Beside the creek stands Reagan's tub mill, a small water-powered grist mill. A tub mill uses a horizontal wheel set in a pit: water hits the wheel's paddles from a flume, and the wheel turns the upper millstone directly through a shaft, with no gears. Families built them cheaply on small creeks, and they ground corn for neighbors who paid in a share of the meal. The mill and the house show the same family putting together a business from the one thing the creek gave them.
Visiting
- Where: on the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, a 5.5-mile one-way loop. The Reagan Place is on the later part of the loop, after the Bales cabin.
- Season: the 2026 season runs mid-April to November 29.
- Vehicles: buses, trailers and motor homes are not permitted, and the road is narrow and steep.
- Parking: a small pull-off; a parking tag is required for stops over 15 minutes, and tags can't be bought in this area, so buy one in advance.
- Time to allow: 15 to 30 minutes.
- Access: the house and mill can be viewed up close; interior access varies, so read the signs.
Context
The Ogle Place, at the start of the road, is a single-family log farm. The Bales cabin is a one-room log home. Reagan's frame house marks the move toward a cash economy. The loop's last big stop, the Place of a Thousand Drips, follows soon after. In late October the creek is low and clear, the leaves are mostly down, and the loop is much quieter on weekdays.
Good to know
- Do I need a parking tag?
- A Park It Forward parking tag ($5 a day, $15 a week or $40 a year) is required for any vehicle parked more than 15 minutes inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Entry is free, and federal passes such as America the Beautiful do not replace the tag.
