This sign is loacated across the street from the post office in Pe Ell.>
Marker Name: Pe Ell
Marker Text: McCormick’s Mill
Harry McCormick and F.B. Hubbard organized the McCormick Lumber Company in 1897. The mill was located two miles west of Pe Ell on the South Bend branch of the Northern Pacific Railway. It consisted of 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. Initially, the mill’s primary business was producing cross-arms to carry telegraph and telephone lines for Western Union in Chicago.
Hubbard sold his share in the mill in 1902. The following year he opened the Eastern Railway & Lumber Company in Centralia. Harry McCormick retired from the mill around 1906. He died in 1911 at age 51.
The mill employed nearly 300 workers by 1909. The same year, it was completely destroyed by fire -- an estimated loss of $250,000. This was the mill’s third major fire; each time it reopened with newer, more efficient equipment. The mill prospered until the Great Depression -- it was sold and dismantled in 1931.