Harry McCormick and F. B. Hubbard organized the McCormick Lumber Company in 1897. Located two miles west of Pe Ell on the South Bend branch of the Northern Pacific Railway, the mill included a shingle mill, planing mill, dry kilns, cross-arm factory, machine shop, offices, bunkhouses, and a company store. By 1903, the company owned and logged 4,200 acres of rich timberland. Its primary business at first was producing cross-arms for telegraph and telephone lines for Western Union in Chicago. Hubbard sold his share in 1902, and in 1903 opened the Eastern Railway & Lumber Company in Centralia. Harry McCormick retired from the mill around 1906 and died in 1911 at age 51. By 1909, the mill employed nearly 300 workers, but that same year it was completely destroyed by fire, with an estimated loss of $250,000. It was the third major fire there, and each time it reopened with newer, more efficient equipment. The mill prospered until the Great Depression, then was sold and dismantled in 1931.