In 1846, Thomas Short, later member of the Parliament of Canada for Peterborough County, erected this stone flour mill here on the Indian River. Within five years he had built a sawmill across the river and had laid out a village plot named Allandale. By 1858, the Allandale Flour Mill, which now also housed an oatmeal mill, had become one of the largest in the region and was exporting large quantities of its products. Short encountered financial difficulties however, and lost possession of the mill in 1862. The village and the mill were re-named Lang after William Lang about 1872. The mill, whose interior was rebuilt by W.J. Humphries after a fire in 1896, continued in operation until 1965 when it was purchased by the Otonabee Region Conservation Authority.