McCormick County, named for Cyrus McCormick, has roots reaching back to the earliest European settlements in South Carolina's backcountry, including French Huguenots at New Bordeaux and the surviving Guillebeau House. The county includes places and institutions such as the John de la Howe School, founded in 1797 through the will of Dr. John de la Howe, Hickory Knob State Park on Thurmond Lake, the Joseph Jennings Dorn Historic House, Willington, the MACK in the former Keturah hotel, Dorn Mill, and Mt. Carmel. The town of McCormick grew from Dorn's Gold Mine after W.B. "Billy" Dorn discovered gold in 1852 and a village was established within five years. After gold mining became less profitable following the Civil War, Cyrus McCormick invested in the mines in 1867, bought the Dorn Milling Company and 1,200 acres four years later, used his influence to secure railroad connections to Augusta and Greenwood, and donated land for churches and a school. By 1880 the settlement had 200 people, and soon afterward he donated 40 acres to establish a town that residents named McCormick for Cyrus and Nettie F. McCormick. Chartered in December 1882, the town was built over gold mine tunnels, was planned, and became the first village incorporated as a dry town in South Carolina, banning the sale of spirituous or intoxicating drink for 100 years. The railroad depot became the first commercial building, cotton farming and cottonseed oil production expanded with rail shipping, hotels served railroad passengers and traveling salesmen, and the McCormick Messenger, founded in 1902, promoted the campaign for a new county. Fourteen years later, after debate and litigation, McCormick County was formed from parts of Abbeville, Edgefield, and Greenwood counties. McCormick later declined as the agricultural economy was hurt by the boll weevil, soil erosion, and the Great Depression, but after World War Two timber, textiles, and tourism became the economic base, and efforts have since been made to restore Main Street to its early twentieth-century appearance.