Bridge Hunting in the corner of Blount County

Bridge Hunting on the Back Roads

Dana Koogler

Tuesday July 23, 2019

Bridge Hunter Pix are Here

Bridgehunter.com

The site is up and running again!  RIP James Baughn the original creator who passed away far too young. 

   I recently learned of a spot at the very edge of Blount County called Shaddon Mill.  It was by an artist by the name of Nick Fielder.  He is very talented.   You can see his work if you click on his name.   I had never  heard of the place before so I started down the rabbit hole investigating.  

I could see on Google maps satellite view that there was a cascade on Ninemile Creek where this should have stood.  A logical place for a mill.    I checked Mill Pictures website and it was not even mentioned.   I decided to take a ride out there to see the spot and do some bridge hunting.  

Above: Painting titled Shaddon Mill by artist Nick Fielder. He painted it from a photo he took in 1969.   I'd love to have seen it back then.   

      It rained hard on Monday off and on all day with the rain and storms growing more intense in late afternoon and evening.  It rained all through the night with some flooding going on and road closures in East and Middle Tennessee.   It finally quit raining about 11 am.  I gave it some time to dry out a little before I headed out to bridge hunt.    

   I first went to hunt up a wooden span bridge that was a railroad overpass.  I thought from Bridgehunter said it was not open.  It reads Closed to All Traffic.  I was surprised to find the bridge open and folks driving across it.   I was also surprised to find Binfield Road.  I had long passed the white farm house on Hwy 411 heading south and thought that road was merely a driveway.  It goes back to a community.   I saw parts of my county I'd never known about.  

Binfield Road Bridge is open to traffic and stout.   I drove across it.  Parked and got out and looked at it and took pictures from all sides.  I then drove back across it and parked at a pull off just before the bridge on Binfield Road to take photos of the siding, the rail switch, and the bridge from the tracks.   The tracks are still active so I walked the grassy area beside them. 

I sent in an update and correction to the sites webmaster.    Hopefully they can change the info.

 Above:  Binfield Bridge a wooden span bridge overpass for the railroad from the tracks.

Binfield Siding

Bridge from the south side

Above: Switch for the Binfield Siding 

Above: My jeep parked with the bridge in the background to the left.   This is the pull off before the bridge on the south side.  Best to park here to walk and see it.  There is a spot on the other side, but it is not as handy as it is near a business and homes with barking dogs. 


      Next I headed to hunt for Thompson Bridge.   I started rambling round the back roads and ended up going to the wrong spot.   I didn't do a very good job on writing down directions for myself and ended up at Howard School Road Bridge first.     It was rather pretty, but it is in a precarious spot.  It sits on a sharp curve at the intersection of Howard School Road and Trigonia.  No place to park really.  I jumped out took a quick look and snapped a few pictures. Just about the time I went to get back in the jeep here came a bunch of cars.   I decided it was best to get going.

Above: Howard School Road Bridge


   Next I headed toward the Shaddon Mill site and the Big Elm Bridge since I was close.  I figured I'd check that out and then see how I felt about the Thompson Bridge.   I had been on Trigonia Road before, but not all the way through it.  I had forgotten how narrow it really is! 
I arrived at a point above Ninemile Creek where the road is along a bluff.   I turned onto Big Elm Road.   I could see right then that Big Elm Bridge was cool, but the Shaddon Mill site was not going to be much today. The stream was flowing swift and very muddy.    It also does not have a great place to park, but there is room to pull over.    I got out and looked around some and snapped my pictures.     Folks back in this neck of the woods seemed somewhat unfriendly and clannish.   I can relate having lived it so not judging.   It made me feel like I'd best get going.   I decided to let Thompson Bridge wait for another day.  Perhaps when I come back to revisit Shaddon Mill. 

    

 Above: Big Elm Bridge with very high sides!  It sits in a beautiful location. 

 Above: Ninemile Creek looking off the bridge.  It is nasty today.   Shaddons Mill was just 

above this point.   

     I think the Big Elm Road is named for the Trigonia Elm which was a record sized ancient elm tree that finally fell to the axes of the TVA in their infinite wisdom.    Click the link to read about it and see the photos.  Says it was 160 feet tall and spread 147 feet weighed five to six thousand pounds!   We have several massive elm trees near our house, but nowhere near that big.   Reading about the elm reminds me of another something I can lump together with the Thompson Bridge search.  I have still never gone to visit the McGee-Carson State Park that now stands abandoned.  One day I'll do those two things at once and go see the Clover Hill Mill and bridge.   That should be a good day of it.  

   I decided I'd best get home to start some dinner and work on my trip reports. 

I plugged in the GPS coordinates to the TomTom to help me make it back to Hwy 411. 

I knew which way it was, but that maze of roads had me bumfuzzled.   I followed it only half trusting its instructions.    It took me out through Russell Hollow and I got to see an odd abandoned old house.  I love abandoned houses and buildings so I got a photo of it.  It reminded me upon first glance of a face that had no eyes!   This is one of those far flung ends of the county where folks don't want to live I suppose. It is beautiful and quiet though.

Above: Eyeless abandoned old house in Russell Hollow.

  All in all a quiet, fun day of being a bum.    I know there probably aren't lots of women 

who care for old bridges, mills and abandoned houses, and railroads, but I am not most women.   One thing I have learned from my own mother...... is to be myself and not worry about what anyone else thinks.    

    Below is a video of one of my favorite songs about railroads.. Steel Rails by Allison Krauss