McCord Village [45° 33' 19" N | 89° 53' 59" W]

McCord was named after Wisconsin politician Myron McCord. It is now part of Tripoli, Wilson and Little Rice.

William F. Stark Wisconsin, River of History William F. Stark, 1988. pg 307

McCord anecdote from Stark: "In the late 1870s mail was brought daily from Wausau to Merrill and back by Etta Space, an attractive, eighteen-year-old girl. She rode horseback through rainstorms and blizzards along roads that were often all but impassable. A few years later she married a successful lumberman, Myron H. McCord. In the late 1890s McCord was appointed governor of the Arizona Territory and the former horseback-riding postmistress became the first lady of Arizona."

The Federal Writers' Project. "Tour 7" Guide to 1930's Wisconsin St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2006. 380. (first published: Wisconsin Library Association, 1941).

This anecdote is also included in the Federal Writers Project Tour 7. The quote from the WPA is the same as that used by Stark except for one word, "[I]n the late 1870's mail was brought daily from Wausau by Etta Space, intrepid 18-year-old girl who rode horseback through rainstorms and blizzards along raods that were often all but impassible."

James Kaysen, a railroad historian, annotated a map of the "Tripoli Quadrangle" in 1971. [wisconsinhistory.org].

George Jones and Norman McVean. History of Lincoln, Oneida and Vilas Counties Wisconsin. Minneapolis: HC Cooper Jr. & Co., 1924. pg: 145.

Jones and McVean's history has corporations, rail roads, biographies, churches and some local stories published in 1924.

McCord appears as a "station on the Soo Railway." McCord, Tripoli and Somo and Lynn are on the border of Oneida and Lincoln counties (once Oneida is carved off of Lincoln in 1887). This put the town far away from both county seats-Tomahawk and Rhinelander-while remaining on the Soo Line.

The village "was an early logging center" with a "sawmill...operated by the Flour City Lumber Co.," After this company failed, the mill was sold to DH Greely. The mill burned down. This was a pretty common progression for lumber boom towns in the region. Especially those that weren't on the Wisconsin River.

After the mill burned down there were some stores in the town which catered to "neighborhood farmers." In 1924 there was "a small one conducted by Albert H. Morris."

Small scale commercial enterprises and agriculture often followed the big cut. These inhabitants were recent European immigrants, left-over lumberjacks and commercial speculators. There is no mention of any native village in the Jones/McVean history.

Robert Arndt. From Forest, to Farming, to Forgotten. A history of Tripoli, Wisconsin (1900-2000). Digicopy: Wausau, 2009. pg: 56-61

Robert Arndt, a Tripoli resident, wrote a centennial history/memoir of the area published in 2009.

There is a six page essay titled "The Indian Village." Arndt includes three photos: a round house "used for the Big Drum Dance," a hexagonal "council building" and the "[w]ater hole hear Indian Village" which is fed by the Little Somo river.

He describes McCord as "a Potawatomi, Ojibwe and Huron forest Indian village existed near [Tripoli] during the first half of the twentieth century."

"The village has been referred to as "The McCord Indian Village." The southeast entrance to this village is north on McCord Road from Highway 8 to the Indian Village Road. This road is six miles east of Tripoli. At the corner of Highway 8 and McCord Road was the former Civilian Conservation Camp."

"The village of McCord, located on the Soo Line Railroad, was named after Myron W. McCord of Merrill. The village was an early logging center with a population of one hundred fifty people. Business establishments were...[railroad ties, lumber, telegraph, landlooker, blacksmith, and hotel...two general stores and a failed Flour City Lumber company sawmill.]"

"McCord is now a ghost town, however the Indian Village is called the McCord Indian Village because of its proximity to the former village of McCord. Indian children attended school in the Tripoli school system."

The Federal Writers' Project. "Tripoli," "Tour 16." Guide to 1930's Wisconsin St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2006. 466-467. (first published: Wisconsin Library Association, 1941).

The 1930's FWP does not include McCord. There is a road trip along what is Highway 8 today. It passes by McCord. The region is logged over. The lumberjacks left the hardwood trees and myths like Paul Bunyan and the Hodag.

Tripoli was a "one-street village" of fifty people. The population has been "dwindling away" since the trees ran out. The Depression was "especially severe here" and the town started selling it's lumber town houses to the incoming farmers who "carted [the small frame houses] away on trucks."

The buildings that remained were a Congregational Church and grade and county schools up to the high school level. These schools were "maintained jointly" by Lincoln, Oneida and Price Counties.

Today, the log church remains. The current Tripoli post office is not described in the FWP road trip. It might be from after the logging era. Today the tri-county public high school still stands but it is a seasonal Fireworks dealer.