Rice Gristmill/Crosby Threshing Barn

The Rice Gristmill, as the name implies, was in the Rice family. It was operated to grind corn, a dynamo, rifiling barrels, and it also served as a meeting place for family, friends, and neighbors from 1798 until 1935.
The gristmill is powered by water. Water is channeled down the mill race made from earth and boards and fills buckets on the wheel. As buckets fill they become heavy and fall which how the wheel turns. This is known as an overshot wheel. The water wheel is attached to a large shaft inside the mill. The shaft turns a series of cogwheels which in turn are connected to and moves the millstones above on the second floor. Grain is poured into the hopper, a large rectangular shaped funnel, which then falls down a shaft and is caught in between two millstones.
The Crosby Threshing Barn was originally built on the Holston River in the 1830s and relocated to its present site in 1978. It displays old farm tools, plows and a horse drawn wagon.
Please stop by the Rice Gristmill and Crosby Threshing Barn and enjoy it as hundreds of people have over the last 215 years. There is a small gift shop located on the second floor. The Rice Gristmill is open Wednesday through Sunday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., April through October.

 Lenoir Museum

     The Lenoir Museum houses approximately 4,000 artifacts found in the Southern Appalachian region. Mr. William Lenoir and his wife Helen collected for more than 60 years with a desire that the rapidly changing times not wipe out an appreciation of the hard work and ingenuity that were part of the everyday life that was disappearing. Items ranged from kitchen to farming tools, pictures to shoes, dolls to guns. The oldest items are the Paleo Indian Points, aged at 12,000 years and the most recent is a pocket knife from the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville. The Lenoir Museum also houses a barrel organ and national known mousetrap collection. It was not only the item, but also the stories of the people behind them he cared about. Mr. Lenoir enjoyed sharing his stories with museum visitors until his death at 97. For The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 9:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M. year round.

     The Rice Gristmill, Crosby Threshing Barn, and Lenoir Buseum are located on Highway 441, just south of Norris Dam. For more information please call the museum at (865) 494-9688.