[2] The earliest records mentioning a settlement in the area date to 1716, when Governor Alexander Spotswood ventured west of the Blue Ridge Mountains on the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe Expedition.

The first European-American to settle permanently in the area was Adam Miller (Mueller) (1703–1783), a native of Germany who arrived in 1726 and made his homestead near present-day Elkton.

[2] Records from 1758 reveal that a Lutheran preacher, Reverend Lawrence Wartman, originally from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania was preaching in the McGaheysville area who had likely arrived the year before in 1757.

[3] Reverend Philip Charles Van Gemunden, a German Reformed preacher, arrived in the county in 1762 and preached at the Upper Peaked Mountain church which had been established in the area which is now McGaheysville.

[4] McGaheysville saw almost no action in the American Civil War, save for a skirmish during the Shenandoah Valley Campaign, on April 27, 1862, involving one section of an artillery battery of New York Militia;[5] it is, however, located near to the site of the Battle of Cross Keys, and consequently soldiers from both the Union Army and the Confederate Army passed through during the campaign.

[12] McGaheysville has a volunteer fire department, which hosts a weekly bingo and an annual three-day lawn party in the summer when families turn up to enjoy live music, rides and games and eat.

The adjacent resort of Massanutten, which began operations in 1971, plays an important role in the local economy, fuelled by tourism all year round with its 14 ski trails, 36 holes of golf, a water park which opened in October 2005 and other facilities.