Mills River is a town in Henderson County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 6,802 at the 2010 census, and was estimated to be 7,168 in 2016. The town took its name from the nearby confluence of the Mills River and French Broad River. It is part of the Asheville Metropolitan Statistical Area. It was incorporated into a town in June 2003. Sierra Nevada opened a brewery in Mills River in 2014.