The Tidewater Hardwood Company built a lumber mill and company town here from 1921 to 1922, naming it Bacova, a contraction for Bath Co., Va. Narrow-gauge railroads brought logs to the mill, and the company paid workers in scrip redeemable for rent, medical attention, and supplies at the company store. After a decade, mill operations slowed during the Great Depression and stopped altogether in 1936. Salvage metal and railroad engines, rails, and cars were sold to Japan just before World War II. Private investors bought the Bacova tract, and in 1957 the founder of The Bacova Guild, Ltd., a group of artists and craftsmen, purchased the town.