The historic Lanterman's Mill, for some, is the centerpiece of northeastern Ohio's Mill Creek Park, one of the largest municipally owned parks in the country. Thanks to visionary Volney Rogers, a collection of properties and green spaces were secured in the late 1800s. Once established as a park in 1891, Mill Creek was slowed by three successive manmade lakes. Before joining the Mahoning River in Youngstown, the Newport, Cohasset and Glacier lakes were created between 1897 and 1928, providing plenty of water related recreation sites today for Mill Creek MetroParks visitors.
   Back in 1797, local residents Isaac Powers and Phineas Hill decided Mill Creek would be the perfect spot for a milling business. John Young, the founder of Youngstown, agreed to the property purchase, and the two went on to build a sawmill and grist mill, beginning operation in 1799. A second mill replaced the first in 1823, only to be washed away in a flood. The mill that now stands at the site was built in 1845 by German Lanterman and his brother-in-law, and was used exclusively as a grist mill. A year after Mill Creek Park was established in 1891, the park purchased the languishing mill. The building became the park's historical museum in 1972 and was named to the National Register of Historic Places four years later.
   Today, visitors can visit the gift shop to buy cornmeal, buckwheat and whole wheat flour that is ground by the grist wheel.

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