Area Settlement

Permanent white settlement in the area began in 1856 with the establishment of Elk City. A map of Elk City showed a stone quarry on a river bank where a buried mass of bedrock created a rise in a trail. The bedrock exposed at Little Elk had little commercial construction value, though some was used for mill foundations and for fireplaces at the old French fort site. A hand-hewn log cabin and barn formerly stood nearby, and the barn housed registered Columbia sheep for property owner Spencer Nelson, who also owned the Little Falls Granite Works company. Cabins built between 1953 and 1960 from remnants of a log cabin post office from Motley, Minnesota, and log cabin buildings from Camp Ripley were removed in the early 2000s as part of an effort to return the land to its natural state.

Minnesota · United States