Historic Contexts Study and Phase II Inventory (Downtown Elk River) 2022

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The Jefferson Highway on the eve of construction of Highway 10, 1941. Photo: MHS. While Sherburne County's road planners were organizing for better roads, some promoters seemed to be waiting for a different transportation shoe to drop. In an article promoting the county's agricultural opportunities, J.A.Monger complained that the county's potential was untapped, noting that this section was overlooked, owing to the grasping greed of the railroads to get the long haul and settle up their railroad lands in remote regions of the far Northwest with subsidized land men, who could turn a larger commission for exploiting them, than the fertile acres nearer home. As a result the fertile lands lying between the Twin Cities and the head of the lake have been left to shift for themselves .. 4s The author was speculating on the potential of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to widen and deepen the Upper Mississippi, seeing a shipping link to the Gulf of Mexico and the Panama Canal as greatly benefiting Elk River. However, these improvements were not made, and river transportation was not revived in the twentieth century. In 1941, construction began on a two-lane highway to St. Cloud, re-routing Highway 10 to bypass the center of town. The project was completed in 1948. Somewhat ironically, highway construction took the Charles Babcock house, as well as the Sherburne County Courthouse lawn, a potato warehouse, and other buildings. In 1969, construction began on a new route for Highway 169 north of Elk River. A new Highway 101 bridge across the Mississippi was completed in 19xx. Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 412002 16