The town once depended on a large sawmill and when the mill cut the available timber the place was nearly abandoned. It was named for Harry W. McCormick, owner of McCormick Lumber Company. Mr. McCormick became post master on May 31, 1899 and the post office operated until July 15, 1929 and the sawmill closed the next year. By 1941 the town was a ghost of a formerly thriving sawmill center. The collapsed ruins of the large mill building were already overgrown by alders and other second-growth timber.