The black smith from the surrounding towns Horn and Meinberg sharpened tools and weapons. At the hillsides you still see today the remains of quarries and stone pits which date back as far as the 16th century. The sandstone called Osningsandstein was used for building as well as to produce mill and grind stones and to create feeding troughs. At several sites you can still see today, several 100 years later, the remains of broken products such as damaged mill stones or roughly forged objects which have not been processed. The mining waste is forming a rock pile along the hill and the vegetation of the forest has covered most of the signs of the past. What is left are the ruins of an old grinding mill and the romantically situated "Waldhotel Silbermühle" which was used as a storage, packing and washing facility for processing silver ore. In 1711 the Silbermühle was converted to a corn mill and got its name. In 1895 the Silbermühle got a liquor license and the business rights to run a pub and guesthouse. The corn mill was running until 1927 and the building was used as a pub and guesthouse only. The Waldhotel Silbermühle became a well known tourist destination and a place of excursions after second world war until the late 70ties. Today the Waldhotel Silbermühle is a small romantic Hotel for the distinctive holidaymaker with restaurant, beer garden and terrace.
On the 24th of April 1965 the National Park "Eggegebirge und südlicher Teutoburger Wald", was founded in the Silbermühle, The reserve covered 600 square kilometer at the time and was the 8th national park in North Rhine Westphalia an the 28th in Germany.
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