The community was named after John I. Nallen, a businessperson in the lumber industry.[3]
It was the home of the Wilderness Lumber Company. The lumber mill operated its own railroad consisting of shay locomotives to bring the logs from the surrounding forest areas to the mill for over thirty years. The site of the saw mill was later replaced by an asphalt company in the 1970s and has since been replaced by a modern log cabin dealership on the same property.
