In 1883, John Henry Cordes, a native German, his Wife "Lizzie", also a german immigrant he met in New York and fell in love with, and year-old sn Charles moved to Antelope Station, where for $769.43 he purchased a small adobe stage sttop along the route of the California and Arizona Stage Company. When Cordes applied for a post officed as Antelope Station, he was turned down because of possible confusion with another Antelope Station (later called Stanton), so he chose his family name and served as the first postmaster.
The Cordes stage stop soon took on other functions. When mines opened in the area, the outpost soon became a supply depot and bank for the miners.
The Cordes post office closed in 1944, but the town lived on until the 1950s, when it was bypassed by the Black Canyon Freeway. A new stopping place, Cordes Junction was established.
Stills standing at the original town site is a gas station that closed in 1973, the family home and a barn constructed in 1912. The Cordes family continues to live at the site.