Coming from Thurston County it can frequently be sunny, until you hit the Grays Harbor County border 3 miles before you reach McCleary. The boundary for the Grays Harbor/Puget Sound drainage basins is about at this point. There are a few homes here in Thurston County that have a McCleary mailing address and are part of the Grays Harbor PUD.
This 3 mile cut from the county border on SR 8 to McCleary didn't exist until about 1910. Prior to that, wagons went over the Hicklin Hill to the north and connected to the present Tornquist Road. It took a wagon from Olympia all day to reach this point and in this area there stood a two-story inn known as the Halfway House, since it was halfway between Olympia and Grays Harbor. J.T. Hicklin, who lived in this area and settled when U.S. Grant was President, was an early settler who constructed the road.
Hicklin's name still exists today on part of the road. Some of the street signs humorously say "Hickland" Road.
