In the years prior to the First World War Wickepin was an important service centre, featuring three banks, blacksmiths and other businesses as well as a post office and railway buildings.

Dorothy Hewett, most famous author of the wheatbelt, lived as a child on a prosperous farm about 15 km north-east of the town between 1923 and 1935.

Two of her plays, The Man from Mukinupin and Field of Dreams, and a dozen of her most celebrated poems, especially "Legend of the Green Country" and "Once I Rode with Clancy", are set in the area.

[2] Albert Facey, Gallipoli veteran and author of A Fortunate Life, lived south of the town from 1922 to 1934 with his family.

[3][4] Wickepin is a service town for the surrounding agricultural district, and contains recreational facilities, historic buildings from its boom period in the 1910s–1920s, a telecentre, public library and caravan park.