The Friends Of Hope Mill

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The Friends Of Hope Mill

Hope Mill -1830's fully restored,water powered, sawmill. Historical tours of museum rooms, workshops and live demonstrations on the sawfloor. Free guided tours.

Lumber and craft sales and womans woodworking courses. Kids can build a birdhouse
Thursdays April-Nov 9:30-4 pm Circa 1835 William Lang and his wife Jane (Stewart) Lang built a carding and fulling mill on the Indian River, a mile north of the village of Lang. The sawmill in Lang burned in 1873 and shortly thereafter, William and his son-in-law Richard Hope added a saw house to their mill. By 1892

the wool and carding business was discontinued and the Hope family provided much-needed lumbering services to the community until 1966. The original sawmill and wood-finishing equipment have been fully restored. In the upper floor of the building is a wood-working museum and archival records from the early wool and carding era. Come and watch the heritage equipment cut and finish lumber just like it was done by our pioneer ancestors The Hope Saw Mill also sells rough and finished lumber,contract sawing, wooden products are for sale hand made by museum volunteers. Kids can build birdhouses to take home! A large collection of antique wood working tools, as well as a museum room dedicated to the Hope Family and wool processing room. The Hope Saw Mill is open on Thursdays from 9:30- 4:00 pm and three selected Sunday, one Sunday in June, July and August. FREE Admission , but donations gratefully accepted at the door.

09/04/2026

Today was the busiest day on record at the Hope Mill! We had so many visitors today coming in one after the other! We had kids building birdhouses, visitors buying crafts and lumber, people who came last week (from almost 2 hours away) and were so impressed that they brought friends and family back this week too! People kept filing in all day long! Every time I looked over at the viewing gallery there was a new group of visitors!
Also gave a tour to Jess from the
Keene Public Library . Hoping to do a future collaboration with the library next year and story time at the sawmill for our little visitors !!?? Stay tuned!

We had one particular couple who came in today. Brenda posted a month or so ago on the Trent Severn FB page about finding an old log just off their shoreline that had started floating up from the bottom of the lake. The Hope Mill responded to her posts where she asked if anyone had any information on the log, in particular the “branding marks” on the end of the log. I wrote a post back letting her know that we believed the brand was from a “John Carew and Co” which was an old sawmill (circa 1900) near Lindsay, Ontario close to their family cottage on Pigeon Lake.

Fast forward to today, Brenda and her husband who had never even heard of our mill before came for a visit! She showed me an interesting discovery. Brenda had made a trip to York University in Toronto and found a book that mentioned a “John Carew and Co” and found a matching picture of the brand marking, information on “The Timber Marking Act of 1870” and some information that matched their log still at their cottage! This sawmill is no longer in business and the old sawmill is no longer standing (as are most sawmills around the province). They came today for a tour of our sawmill and to see if we could possibly help them mill the log for them! The log would make a lovely bench and a table made from the top few inches showcasing the branding marks.
What an amazing day! We now have a new FB “follower” that came from a person with an enquiring mind and an interesting story!
Such a great day!!! 😊❤️

09/03/2026

Come down to the Hope Mill today for a fully guided tour of our museum rooms, workshops and sawfloor! Come see what life was like almost 200 years ago! While you’re here you can purchase some lumber that was cut with the exact same equipment, the exact same way as it was done so many years ago! We are old school and proud of it! Our lumber is true dried, true to size, straight and much cheaper than the local lumber yards. Come on down today. It is going to be a beautiful day!

08/27/2026

Another super busy, beautiful day down at the Hope Mill! We had direct decedents of a past sawyer come by with his family to teach them about their family history. We cut a bunch of logs for orders, plained a bunch of lumber for an order, got a delivery of logs from our friends down at Elmhurst’s Resort, change out the solar kiln from the dried lumber to fresh cut lumber to begin its drying process, toured lots of people, sold some lumber….phewww! Did I miss anything else? See you next Thursday to do it all over again!

08/22/2026

Need lumber for your fence, deck, dock, furniture making or crafting….don’t go to Home Depot!! Come buy your lumber at The Hope Mill! NO tariffs and NO HST!! Our lumber is straight, true to size, great quality and much cheaper! We have various different species in stock and we can finish and custom cut to your liking. See you Thursdays 9:30-4 pm or by appointment.

08/18/2026

Today our Volunteers came together to have our annual Hope Mill volunteer BBQ at the mill! The weather was perfect, the food amazing and the company fun as always! See you Thursday! 9:30-4 come on by for a tour and/or buy some amazing lumber at great prices!!

This song attached to this post is very fitting for our wonderful volunteers! ❤️

08/17/2026

It’s just “tres chic” to come to the Hope Mill for a historical tour and/or to buy your lumber from us!! See you Thursday!

08/14/2026

Yesterday was probably our busiest Thursday ever! It was a constant flow of visitors all day long from places near and far! At one point there was no more standing room in the viewing gallery as our guests watch our Sawyer and volunteers cut a large cedar log. We also welcomed for a tour of our machine shops and museum rooms! Thanks for coming out and promoting the Hope Mill! See you next Thursday!

08/12/2026

Looking forward to welcoming Peterborough County Tourism to the mill tomorrow (Thursday)!

08/06/2026

Our doors are open today from 9:30-4 pm. Come step back in time with us!

Address

3414 Hope Mill Road
Keene, ON
K0L2B0

Opening Hours

9:30am - 4pm

Telephone

7052956250

Website

http://www.hopemill.ca/

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