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

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Exhibit Station: 12 Topic: Transportation in Sherburne County Story: Transportation Stories Rivers in Sherburne County were major transportation routes before the county was settled. The Mississippi was the pre-eminent transportation route in the county for the Ojibwe and Dakota Indians. The Mississippi was also a major trade and exploration route for people like Zebulon Pike in 1805. Inl853, the Governor Ramsey, a shallow draft steam boat began plying the Upper Mississippi waters from St. Anthony Falls to Sauk Rapids, stopping frequently in Sherburne County to take on passengers and freight. (See St. Anthony Express, April 22, 1853) In the 1849, a regular stage line ran through Sherburne County, part of its route along present County Road 8 from St. Paul to Sauk Rapids. (Edward Van Dyke Robinson, 34) The stage route was soon extended to Alexandria and Breckenridge. Along the route over present County Road 8, a passenger wrote that along the river the stages, rattled away through oak groves [and] through a prairie with scarcely a tree to be seen. Beautiful groves of oak ... nestled here and there like island gems in a peaceful sea. (As quoted in Gilman, 82; This original source should be located for additional information on the route.) The military road connected Point Douglass at the mouth of the St. Croix with Ft. Gaines/Ft. Ripley near Little Falls. Constructed in 1852, the military road ran crossed the Mississippi at St. Cloud, then followed the Red River Ox Cart trails through most of Sherburne County, deviating in only a few places where it was especially sandy. It was termed "an uncommonly superior road." (as quoted in Gilman, 81) After 1852, the Red River carts followed the straight military road, rather than meandering over the prairie. The combined Red River and military road ran southeast of Big Lake toward Elk River over "a fine country" of rolling prairies diversified with trees." (As quoted in Gilman, 81) From Itasca (near the Kelley Farm) to the edge of Sherburne County, the road continued through "as fine a prairie as the sun ever shone upon, extending N. and E. as far as the eye could reach with a farm just opened here and there." (As quoted in Gilman 83) The St. Paul and Pacific Railroad reached Itasca in southeastern Sherburne County in 1864. By 1866, it had stretched across the entire lower portion of the county to St. Cloud, more or less following the level, sandy shores of the Mississippi River and the route that the Red River Ox Cart travelers had found so pleasant. It wasn't until 1886 that a northern railroad branch was completed from Elk River to Milaca. (Check Historically Speaking, Spring 2004 and SCHS files on subject.) The old ox cart and military road was graveled to improve its usefulness some time in the latter 191h century. It became a favorite recreational route by the 201h century and designated a Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 85