In 1889 George Austin McHenry led fifty-four families from Michigan to a site on the proposed route of the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad twenty-five miles north of Gulfport. This "Michigan settlement," later known as McHenry, flourished as a forest products boomtown, reaching a population of 1500 by 1908. The decline of the town began in 1916 when Wiggins defeated McHenry in a contest to become the seat of Stone County. A June 23, 1939 fire destroyed the business district leaving McHenry a virtual ghost town.