 Little Mill Creek, long, rises in northwestern Roane County and flows generally westward.Shortly downstream of their confluence, Mill Creek collects an long tributary known as the Tug Fork, which is formed in southern Jackson County by the confluence of the Bear Fork and Grasslick Creek, and flows northwestward, past the community of Statts Mills, joining Mill Creek from the south.Mill Creek flows generally west-northwestward in a winding course through central and western Jackson County, through the city of Ripley, which may have been named for Harry Ripley, a traveling preacher said to have drowned in the creek in 1830.