Find a path up to the top of the drumlin - mind the poison ivy!! Find an old rock fence line and look east. Cache is a clear plastic lock box
Hope Mill Conservation Area is a very historically significant property. Hope Mill was constructed in 1835 by William Lang and his wife Jane (Stewart) Lang. The Langs lived above the mill until they later moved into a larger home across from the mill with their seven children. The mill originally operated as a fulling and carding mill. The village in which the mill was located in was called Allendale. However, when the name needed to be changed, it was renamed Lang in honour of William Lang, a very prominent member of the community. In 1873, the saw mill that operated in Lang was destroyed by fire. William Lang and his son-in-law Robert Hope took this opportunity and added a saw house to their mill operations. By 1892, the fulling and carding business was completely replaced by the saw mill. The Hope family focused on providing lumber to the community. The mill was under continuous family ownership for 130 years.
Otonabee Conservation purchased the property from William Lang’s great grandson John Miller Hope in 1966. Otonabee Conservation made many improvements to the mill and the surrounding land. The side of the saw house was opened so visitors could watch the machinery and the original living quarters were converted to a museum to display historical tools. Hope Mill was used for sawing demonstrations under Otonabee Conservation until 1993 when the project could no longer be funded. Eventually, more funding was secured and the mill reopened in 2006 through a joint effort between Otonabee Conservation, the Otonabee Region Conservation Foundation and the Hope Mill Restoration Volunteers. Hope Mill is one of the last remaining water-powered mills operating as it would have in the 1800s and it is the only historical mill in Ontario that is still located on its original site.