[2] In 1865, General Sherman and Union Army troops burned the cotton mills but spared the dam from destruction.

[4] In late May 2003, over Memorial Day weekend, heavy rains caused the embankment dam to give way and also destroyed 30 feet (9.1 m) of the nearby Lakeview Road.

[4] About 40 homes and 1600 people downstream were evacuated as water from Hope Mills Lake rushed down the creek causing $2.1 million in damages before making its way to the Cape Fear River.

After four years of fund and permit requests, construction on the new 14 million dollar Hope Mills Dam began in March 2007.

[8][9] On Wednesday, June 16, 2010, a controlled release began after engineers noticed silt coming out of the lower side of the dam.

By Thursday morning (June 17, 2010) almost all of the water in the lake was gone and the town awoke to a news helicopter hovering overhead with a live video feed to ABC11.

[13] In April 2013 Mayor Jackie Warner requested a plan to remove the dam but the town sued the builders for $10 million in May in order to pay for repairs.

[16] "but [s]teady rains ... filled the formerly empty lake bed to its proper level", Town Manager Melissa Adams said.

[18] The project was completed by a design-build team composed of Schnabel Engineering and ASI Constructors with a budget of $8 million.