Ye Olde Mill in Utica, Ohio, originally built in 1817 by early settler Clarence McKnight, was one of the largest mills on the new Ohio frontier. This grist mill was originally powered by the Licking River, with a stone dam about 1/4 mile upstream diverting water into a man-made canal called the mill race, where the flow turned the water wheel and the millstones that ground wheat into flour; after passing over the wheel, the water went to the mill pond, into the tail race, and back to the river. The entire mill was powered by an overshot water wheel, and the site's existing 2,000 pound water wheel is 18 feet in diameter. The present structure is the fourth mill on this site and the second erected on the present foundation. Restoration began in 1970 by the Velvet Ice Cream Company in conjunction with the Dager family. A water wheel at the site is powered by cooling water from the refrigeration process used by the Velvet Ice Cream Company, piped underground, up to the wooden frame, and over the wheel; this wheel is 10 feet 4 inches in diameter, 4 feet in width, and weighs over 3,000 pounds.