Silver Lake Mill: 200 Years of a Shenandoah Valley Mill & Community

Lyon, Cheryl

Written and designed to attract all readers, Silver Lake offers a thoroughly researched history based on dozens of primary source documents. Cheryl Lyon, who purchased the mill in 1999 and began the arduous task of overseeing its renovation, is an indefatigable researcher. Over the decades, she has conducted numerous interviews with former millowners, mill workers, and Silver Lake community residents. Her dedication to discovering the past and her extraordinary creative talent combine in this collectible new local history publication.

The mill evolved and endured, rising from the ashes of the Civil War and absorbing the uncertainties of a farm-based economy. In each new cycle of life, the mill remained a distinctive core of Dayton’s identity. The lake holds precious memories – optimistically casting a line on the opening day of fishing season, lacing up skates when the surface turned to glass and, for some, doing a bit of romancin’ parked by the shore in the reflection of a shimmering full moon. And who could forget the fully-lit Christmas trees magically appearing in the middle of the lake as the holiday approached?