Conings Farm Market & Bridge Hunting

Large hanging basket of petunias at Conings Market

Conings Farm Market & Bridge Hunting 

Monday July  27, 2020

Dana & Kenny Koogler

Pictures are here: Bridgehunter Pix

and Here

    Kenny was still getting over his surgery and not quite ready to go back to work. I got up with all sorts of plans for Monday only to be startled by him still at home and resting on the couch.  I felt the brakes go screeching on my plans.
It was a rough day.   Finally about three in the afternoon I told him to come on with me and go for a ride.   He agreed.   I knew we wouldn't be able to do much, but I couldn't take one more second sitting round the house. I couldn't take one more moment listening to the descriptions of every bodily sensation and symptom.   I know more about my spouse's parts than I ever wanted to know.

    I wanted to ride out to Conings Farm Market.  It had been a couple years since I went out there to buy produce.  We did that first as they closed at 6 pm. 
The drive out to the market is beautiful. You have a view of Chilhowee Mountain and some of the more remote parts of our county.  Blount County is a good sized one in our state.   Bigger than you realize!

      We got out there and found the market open.  They did not have quite the selection of items they usually do, but it was still good. We bought a fresh cantaloupe, a sugar doll seedless watermelon, peaches and cream bicolor corn, and yellow squash.    The market is real pretty. 

 Above: God Bless America.. the flag of our nation and state.

 Above: View of Chilhowee Mountain in the distance.

 Above and below.. views of the market front with their pretty hanging baskets.

 Above and below-- produce that is just the best

 Above and below: plants and tomatoes and cucumbers.

   

   We had some of the bicolor corn for supper later.  We had watermelon also.

 Above: Peaches and cream variety of corn is the all time best corn ever! We love it.
Below: slicing open the seedless sugar doll melon juicy and fresh!

     Once we left the market we headed out even further into the corner of our county. Trigonia!  I think it got its name from where Blount, Loudon, and Monroe counties all come together.     It was another pretty drive on country roads.    I am ready to move out here just anytime, but I expect it will have to wait til Kenny retires. 

      I had long wanted another chance to visit Thompson bridge, but did not want to go alone.  The bridge is a remnant from where they re-routed the road and put in a new bridge... leaving the old one abandoned.   A long abandoned store sits at the Lanier Road end of the bridge.  Bars on the windows like it was in downtown New York or Miami.    Very odd sight.  The reason I didn't want to do this alone is that the bridge is thoroughly overgrown with poison ivy, kudzu, and all sorts of vegetation.   I got out of the jeep and took a look at it. I was going to have to force myself to feel the fear and do it anyway.

      I noticed that from the old store you can't even see the bridge it is so swallowed by green growth. 

 Above: old store at the end of the bridge

 You can't see the bridge from here

 above: poison ivy and weeds galore!

 Thankfully the middle of the bridge was more open

 Looking off the side

 Thompson bridge

 This is the end of Thompson bridge closer to Big Gully Road. It would be easier to visit it in Summer, by parking across the road at the pull off for Ninemile Creek and come in from the Big Gully end.  Less weeds

 Above: Kenny turns around getting ready to walk back to the jeep.

Above: Ninemile Creek viewed from the side of the bridge.


     It was not the most exciting thing to do, but it beat the heck out of sitting round the house.  Next we motored on toward Big Elm Bridge. I was wanting to finally visit the Shaddon Mill site.  I had studied up on it enough to think I was going to find it today.   Kenny wasn't interested so he called his coworker about going back to work in the morning while I climbed over the bank.

     

   
Above: Big Elm bridge is a neat old bridge way out in our county. 
Below: Ninemile Creek viewed off Big Elm Bridge--today I realized that this creek stays muddy all the time.  First visit I thought it was muddy because of the rain storm that just ended.
 

 Above: I'm down the bank and under the bridge

 It is a short distance up to the mill site.  The vegetation is not too bad. a few briars, switch cane, and vines.

 Ninemile Creek .. even though this is a rough, muddy creek I still like it. I grew up swimming in an old cow creek like this.

 Above: Shaddon Mill site is not much more than a remnant dam/rock wall and a flat spot where the mill used to sit.  It is very old. It is one of the area grist mills that floundered with the coming of technology and the construction of Tellico Lake. 

Above: Another look at the Shaddon Mill site.

  According to the National Register of Historic Landmarks.. the Shaddon Mill was active from 1850-1900 then I  guess it sat abandoned or idle.  I read a description that said it was the foundation, the wall/dam the mill turbine.  I know from reading a thesis  written by a UT student.. that the Tellico area mills were studied and excavated. The mill equipment from Shaddon Mill is in storage at Norris, Tennessee.   TVA removed and kept it.   Trigonia Mill was nearby. The two mills were barely a mill apart.

   The thesis goes on to say that the Shadden Mill was originally run by Silas Pearson as both a grist mill and saw mill.  They ground only corn here at this mill.  It was later run by Frank Shadden and at some point later began to be known as "Skeens Mill".    It says that because this mill site would not be flooded by the coming of the lake no archeological work was done.

    I climbed back up the bank and prepared to go home.  I was satisfied that I had at last visited and photographed two spots I'd long had on my mind.  Not a real exciting day.  I had Kenny pull down to an abandoned bank on the way home. 

I want to visit Militia Springs which lies behind that bank.  

It isn't a long distance into the woods, but it is very snakey.  I expect it would be best to wait til the weather is cold to do this trip.   The first spring is not far into the woods, but the second one is a bit further.