09/23/06
Mingo Falls

I didn’t know where the name Mingo had come from, but I had assumed that it was an Indian name. To be safe, however, I did not state this in the book. I’m glad I didn’t. The book Cherokee Heritage Trails Guidebook (Barbara R. Duncan & Brett H. Riggs, UNC Press) quotes Cherokee elder Jerry Wolfe as stating the waterfall was named by loggers from West Virginia, who thought the falls resembled a Mingo Falls from that state. I have no idea where Mingo Falls in West Virginia is. Wolfe also states that the Cherokees already had their own name for the falls, "Big Bear Falls."