Editing Elk River, Minnesota (section)

===Rivers===
[[File:2013-0326-ElkRiverWaterTower.jpg|thumb|upright|The Elk River Water Tower was placed on the [[National Register of Historic Places listings in Minnesota#Sherburne County|National Register of Historic Places]] in 2012.]]
Zebulon Pike passed through the area on his 1805 exploration of the [[Upper Mississippi River]] and named the Elk River after the herds of elk he saw in the area. David Frederic Faribault, son of French-Canadian fur trader [[Jean-Baptiste Faribault]] built a trading post near the [[confluence]] of the Elk and Mississippi Rivers in 1846, which he later sold, in 1848, to H.M. Rice and S.P. Folsom. Folsom moved his family to the place and built a log cabin. French fur trader and guide [[Pierre Bottineau]] bought the post and cabin from Folsom. The trading post stood on a bluff just north of the present day bridge across the Elk River on main street. Bottineau also built a hotel in 1850 on the bank of the Mississippi about a half mile below the mouth of the Elk.  The two rivers and the Red River Trail, which passed nearby, made this area a good location for commerce.

Silas Lane opened up a farm near the old trading post site, making his claim in section 33 in 1850. A large number of early settlers came from Maine and nearly all of them were experts in lumbering. In 1851, Ard Godfrey and [[John Jamieson|John C. Jamieson]], a native of Orono, Maine, saw the potential of the water power of the Elk River and purchased the claim from Lane. They built a dam and a [[sawmill]]. Their dam created the first lobe of Lake Orono (called the Mill Pond), which extended from the present day dam to Orono Cemetery Point. In 1855, the area by the dam was platted and the town of Orono (known as Upper Town) was created.

In the latter half of the 19th century, agriculture and dairy farming replaced lumber as the base of Elk River's economy. Grist mills and a starch factory, which took advantage of the potato fields to the west, were built.

The Orono-Elk River area continued to grow until by 1860 it had reached a population of 723 people. These early settlers typically came from New England. Elk River's population continued to grow following a slow period caused by the civil war. The majority of people moving to Elk River by that time were from Northern Europe.

The village of Elk River was platted in 1865, replatted in 1868, and when incorporated in the winter of 1880–1881, included both Orono and Elk River. By 1870, Elk River swelled to a population of 2,050 and became the county seat in 1872. Around this same time, the railroads replaced the rivers as the main focus of transportation and the Lower Town (the present day historic downtown area) replaced Upper Town as the focus of commerce.

The Orono Dam was destroyed by an ice storm in 1912, but hydropower gave a new incentive to dam the Elk River in 1915. This new dam created the four lobes of Lake Orono as we know it today. In 1916, the Village of Elk River received electricity for the first time. The entire township of Elk River would not get electricity until after World War II.