McCormick is an
unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
off
Washington State Route 6
State Route 6 (SR 6) is a long State highways in Washington, state highway in Pacific County, Washington, Pacific and Lewis County, Washington, Lewis counties in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. The highway, which e ...
in
Lewis County, in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...
of
Washington
Washington most commonly refers to:
* George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States
* Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A ...
.
The town is west of
Pe Ell and 1.8 miles east of the extinct town of
Walville, Washington and the Pacific County line.
The
Willapa Hills Trail bisects the area.
History
The town was built in 1897 around a mill for the McCormick Lumber Company, owned by George and Harry McCormick, which began operations the following year.
Located on a branch line of the
Northern Pacific Railroad
The Northern Pacific Railway was an important American transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the Western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest between 1864 and 1970. It was approved and chartered b ...
, a post office was named after the mill and established around that time, remaining in operation until 1929.
The community's location was situated in forested lands considered to contain the highest quality timber in the county.
The mill was rebuilt after it suffered a near-total loss in 1909. It closed in 1927 as lumber production at the plant had become idle. The town began to be demolished, with materials salvaged by a new owner of the company. A
tuberculosis sanitorium was opened in 1935 and closed in 1941.
Considered a
ghost town
A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...
afterwards despite continual habitation, most of the property was bought out beginning in 1954 by George Fraser, a retired tailor from
Centralia.
Notes
References
Populated places in Lewis County, Washington
Unincorporated communities in Lewis County, Washington
Unincorporated communities in Washington (state)
{{LewisCountyWA-geo-stub