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A BRIEF HISTORY OF ELK RIVER By Stephen Rohlf May 17, 2000 The last glacier in Minnesota heaped up coarse materials in front of itself as it advanced across the state like a giant bulldozer. When it retreated, it left behind a band of rolling hills made up of sand and gravel running diagonally across the state from northwest to southeast. This band of hills, called terminal moraine, are forested with hardwoods. Elk River is situated in this terminal moraine, which is the reason why gravel mining is so prevalent within the city and much of the area is not considered good farmland. The finer materials deposited to the south of the terminal moraine, called an outwash plain, is typified by prairie habitat. Elk River is located on the edge, between the woods and the prairie. This natural boundary between prairie and woods was also the boundary between Indian nations. As the Dakota retreated southward from the advancing Ojibwa nation, clashes occurred. Two battles between these enemies took place where the Elk River meets the Mississippi River in 1772 and 1773. Both tribes ceded the area of land that includes present day Sherburne County to the United States in 1837. The English translation of the Ojibwe name for the Elk River is "Double River", so named because it paralleled the Mississippi River. Whites called it the St. Francis River. Nicollet's map of 1843 called the Elk River's northern most tributary the St. Francis River, as it is known today, and used the Ojibwe name for the Elk River. Because of the large herds of woodland elk in the area, Zebulon Pike named it the Elk River. From 1850 on the river has been called the Elk River. In 1846, David Faribault built a trading post on a bluff north of the Elk River over looking the Mississippi River. In 1848, Pierre Bottineau bought the trading post from Faribault. The site was a good location for business being at the conjunction of two rivers and with a branch of the Red River Trail passing nearby. Ard Godfrey, a native of Orono Maine, saw the potential of the waterpower in Elk River and built a dam and saw mill in 1851. The lake resulting from this dam extended from approximately the present dam to Orono Cemetery Point and was called the Mill Pond. Pilings from what is believed to be part of the original dam or an associated bridge can be seen just down stream from the present dam. Gristmills and also a starch factory that took advantage of the potato fields to the west of Elk River were built to serve the burgeoning agricultural economy in the latter half of the 19th century. In 1855, the area by the dam was platted and the town of Orono (known as Upper Town) was created. With the military road to Fort Ripley passing nearby the population continued to grow. Between 1849 and 1857, the population expanded from 7 people to 134 and the first schoolhouse was built. In 1872, the Village of Elk River, which included the original town of Orono, became the Sherburne County seat.