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Part One <br />Elk River Historic Contexts <br /> <br />Report Organization <br /> <br />Part One of the Historic Resources Study includes six historic <br />contexts that analyze the historical and architectural <br />development of Elk River. The contexts begin with permanent <br />Euro-American settlement in the late 1840s and 1850s and <br />extend to about 1950. Part Two contains the results of a <br />companion study, an intensive survey of the downtown <br />commercial area, and an inventory map. <br /> <br />Methods <br /> <br />The research was based on published histories such as the <br />History of the Upper Mississippi Valley (1881), Edward <br />Robinson's Early Economic Conditions and the Development of <br />Agriculture in Minnesota (1915), historic maps, photos and aerial <br />views, local newspapers, and federal census records. The <br />subject files of the Sherburne County Historical Society <br />provided information compiled by local historians over the <br />past eighty years. Reconnaissance-level inventories conducted <br />by the Minnesota Historical Society and the Sherburne County <br />Historical Society (ca. 1980-1998) were also consulted. <br /> <br />In addition to the Sherburne County Historical Society <br />ardaives, the Minnesota Historical Society collections were a <br />primary source of information. The City of Elk River also <br />supplied maps and other materials. <br /> <br />Of interest for future research are various manuscript <br />collections at the Minnesota Historical Society related to early <br />Elk River families. They include the papers of Charles Babcock, <br />Ard Godfrey, W.H. Houlton, and John Q. A. Nickerson. <br /> <br />A general windshield survey of Elk River accompanied the <br />development of the historic contexts. Fieldwork in the <br />commercial district included a Phase II study of historic <br />properties within an area bounded by Main Street at the south, <br />Highway 10 at the north, and King Street at the west. <br /> <br />The study was conducted in compliance with the Secretary of <br />the Interior's Standards and Guidelines for Archaeology and <br />Historic Preservation. <br /> <br />Tlw Elk River near its confluence <br />with the Mississippi River', 2002. <br /> <br />Elk River Historic Contexts arid Phase II Downtown Commercial Area Study <br /> 3 <br /> <br /> <br />