The community was originally known as Hacker Lick for John Hacker and the salt springs he found here in 1772 after following a buffalo trail onto lands he claimed by "tomahawk mark" in present Webster, Upshur, and Lewis counties. He killed a buffalo cow here. The post office operated from 1856 to 1892 as Hacker's Valley, when the apostrophe was dropped. The name was also used for the local Methodist church, tax district, and geographical quadrangle. The Conrad and Anderson families came later.