In the early railroad days at Elkmont, southbound trains needed a wye to move a single engine to the north end of the train for the return journey because trains traveled with only one engine and tracks farther south were still under construction. Around 1913, Train #3 southbound showed the wye on the right, and around 1945, Train #2 going north reflected that Elkmont had three trains a day. Railroad companies built section houses along the tracks to house workers, and one of these was later moved to school property in the late 1950s to serve as the Scout House for Boy Scout Troop 248. Elkmont was known as King Cotton Country, with as many as 500 bales of cotton sold in one week in January 1898, and it also had other bumper crop years, including one in the mid-1950s. Livery stables in town were multi-functional, caring for animals and providing seed, feed, and excursions for buggy rides or family outings, including one on Railroad Street and another on Smith Avenue. A water tank built in 1936 served nearby cotton warehouses. In the 1920s, brothers John and Harry Morris built a steam-operated cotton gin near the general store owned by their father, Hassie, then moved the gin across the road in the late 1930s after electricity became available; Morris Brothers Gin continued under different owners until the mid-1980s, when Kenny Carter bought the property and began the Ole Gin House Restaurant. E.T. Gray and his eldest son, Fred Gray, Sr., operated a general store and cotton gin in Elkmont as early as 1900, and the gin later became Fred Gray and Son, run by Fred Gray Jr. and George Gray; Gray Brothers remained in operation until 1987, when it was sold to George Gray Jr. and Perry McNatt.