Taken from a 1993 Forest Service map of bear habitat, shown in green. The orange line is the area proposed for protection in The Wilderness Society's "NC Mountain Treasures.  The Cradle of Forestry is protected land. Gray and dark green show private land. Major trails are shown as dashed lines.

Location: Transylvania and Henderson Counties, SE of Cradle of Forestry and US 276, includes portion of Pink Beds.

Access:  From NC 280 N of Brevard to FS Road 297 (Turkeypen Gap Road) at Henderson/Transylvania Cty line, then NW on 297 to Turkeypen Gap trailheads.  Also from US 276 N of Brevard into Pisgah Forest to Yellow Gap Road (FS 1206), then E to FS Road 476 (Wolf Fork Road or S. Mills R. Road).  S on 476 to S. Mills R. Trail (FS 133).

USGS Topographic Quadrangles:  Pisgah Forest, (Dunsmore Mountain (N tip)), (Shining Rock, W tip))  Also see the 1995 Pisgah Ranger District Trail Map.  Trails Illustrated also has a 1996 map of the Pisgah District.

Features/Description/Potential:
    This is a very popular and well-used hiking, horse, mtn bike, and camping/hunting area in the South Mills River watershed.  Goes E to private land near Buttermilk Mt., S to Turkeypen Gap and its trailhead, SW to Black Mt and borders the Clawhammer Mt. trail (FS 440). Includes the Cantrell Creek trail (FS 148), S. Mills R. trail (FS 133), all parts of an extensive trail network.  There is some 100+ yr. growth just N of the Bradley Creek special interest area on the NE, and just S of Funneltop Mt., and also SW of Clawhammer and Black Mts in the Pressley Cove/Maxwell Cove area.  High Falls, Wolf Ford, and Copperas Rock are scenic features.  S. Mills R. and N. Mills R. cut across the Brevard Fault near their junction. The Wild Area is part of a much larger bear sanctuary.
    The special interest area above Bradley Creek on Buttermilk Mt. is a good quality example of mature, relatively undisturbed scarlet oak forest cover type of regional significance, and is under consideration for a research natural area.  Unhappily the 1994 Amended Forest Plan puts the area SW of this area into MA 4D, a logging area.
     There is a fairly good trail from Grassy Lot Gap on the Yellow Gap Road (FS 1206) up to Funneltop and the ridge connecting it to Rich Mt.  This ridgeline is quite beautiful, parklike with many large oaks, black cherry and hickory.  The Forest-sensitive species, yellow bellied sapsucker, was sighted on Funneltop Mt. during breeding season.  A horseshoe-shaped area just S of Funneltop has been put into MA4D, a logging area, though most of the rest of the S. Mills Roadless Area is protected.  There has been  timber sale activity in the N near Funneltop Mt. and on the SW near Clawhammer Mt.
    The Cradle of Forestry special area adjacent on the NW contains the famous "Pink Beds", at 205 acres the most extensive upland valley bog and marsh system in the mountains of North Carolina.  The water from this bog system feeds the South Fork of the Mills River. The Pink Beds bogs are the best quality and southernmost example of bogs in the Southern Appalachians.
      The S. Mills was given the Outstanding Resource Waters classification by the State of NC in 1988.  Asheville and Hendersonville are planning to use water from this watershed.  Under leadership of congressman Jamie Clarke, South Mills River (and the North Fork downstream of the Hendersonville Municipal Reservoir) was designated a National Wild and Scenic Study River by Congress in 1990.
    The FS concluded (reversing their decision in the 1987 Forest Management Plan) in 1996 that 20.1 miles of South Fork Mills River within the Pisgah Forest (beginning in the Cradle of Forestry and going to the junction with the North Fork), 5.3 miles outside the Forest, plus 5.9 miles of the North Fork (from the Hendersonville Reservoir) and 2.2 miles of the Mills River below their junction is eligible  for National Wild River status.  This could become the longest "wild" river in N.C.

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