In 1842 Gerry Bates arrived from Ohio and staked claim to a treeless tract of land in what became the center of Elmhurst, while land along Salt Creek had already been occupied. Elisha Fish had settled in York Township in 1834, and in 1843 Bates built Hill Cottage Tavern, a travelers inn. As Elmhurst's population grew from 200 in 1860 to 1,050 in 1890, 2,360 in 1910, 14,055 in 1930, and 42,762 in 2000, development and industry replaced open land. Engineers modified Salt Creek, changing its natural channel and flood plain, and as the community expanded along the creek, flooding became a significant threat to homes and businesses. Elmhurst built municipal sewers to move waste and stormwater to treatment facilities along Salt Creek, beginning with a first municipal sewer in 1893 that discharged directly into the creek and a first municipal sewage treatment plant in 1910. Salt Creek was extensively modified and straightened in the 1960s and 1970s, and in 1968 a dedicated storm sewer was built to separate stormwater from sewage. After 9.5 inches of rain in 24 hours caused massive flooding throughout Chicagoland in 1987, DuPage County enacted a stormwater management plan in 1989. In 1992 an Elmhurst levee system was built and DuPage County purchased Elmhurst Quarry, and in 1993 the Elmhurst Quarry Flood Control Facility opened in a former limestone quarry to divert creek water into a reservoir holding nearly 2,705,560,000 gallons, one of the largest non-Federal flood-control reservoirs in the United States. Since 1992, levees extending from St. Charles Road south to Butterfield Road, together with the reservoir at Eldridge Park, have protected southwest Elmhurst from Salt Creek flooding, and in 2008 storm waters swelled Salt Creek but were diverted into the Elmhurst Quarry.