subject: Elk River, Minnesota: From Zebulon Pike to Becoming Minnesota's Energy City [print this page] Elk River, Minnesota: From Zebulon Pike to Becoming Minnesota's Energy City
Check out our MN Tours in our online store. We have tours of the best scenic highways in Minnesota.
Though it's far from spectacular, the hilly countryside around Elk River defines a natural boundary between prairie and woodlands. This region also served for many years as a border between Ojibwe and Dakota Indian hunting grounds. The hills themselves were scraped up from the bedrock more than ten thousand years ago by the forward edge of advancing glaciers. The presence of so much rock in the soil makes it relatively poor for farming, though it also explains why Elk River has so many gravel pits.
Zebulon Pike and David Faribault
Elk River was given its name by Zebulon Pike, who saw herds of elk during his exploratory journey through the area in the fall of 1805. Forty years later David Faribault built a trading post at the point where the Elk and Mississippi Rivers meet. Like many early fur-traders, David was a "mixed blood", the son of an Indian mother and Jean Baptiste Faribault, one of Minnesota's earliest fur traders.
The Marriage of Faribault
David Faribault later married Nancy McClure, the daughter of the Dakota chief Winona. Chief Winona was sent to Florida by the government when Nancy was only a few months old, and she was raised in mission schools, where she was educated in the manner of Europeans. The two were wed at Ft. Snelling in 1851, and this favorable match between members of two frontier aristocracies was a gala affair, attended not only by Alexander Ramsey, then the territorial governor, but also by the head chiefs and the principal men of the great Sioux nation, and officials from Washington who had come to negotiate a treaty to open large tracts of land south of Fort Snelling to white settlement.
Pierre Bottineau
By this time Faribault had sold his trading post in Elk River to Pierre Bottineau. Bottineau was also part white and part Native American. He had arrived in St Paul in 1841, served as an interpreter and guide for general Sibley, and purchased tracts of land in both St. Paul and St. Anthony Falls, before establishing a settlement further west known as Bottineau's Prairienow Maple Plain, a suburb in the west metro area of the Twin Cities.
By many accounts, Bottineau was one of the most extraordinary men of his time. He spoke a number of Indian languages, and had guided trips throughout many parts of the region extending from the Mississippi to the Missouri Rivers and beyond. One man who knew him well later described Bottineau as follows:
"He is a large man physically as I remember him, with a prominent face and head, straight black hair and piercing eyes, and a swarthy complexion. An odd contrast to this appearance is his exceeding pleasant smile which nearly always radiates his face. He has the characteristics of the bear and the gentleness of the woman.... He is a noble link of the past, as he combines the French, the Indian and the American, in all his elementary peculiarities. One of the best things which can be said of Bottineau is, he was always true to his trusts, and that of itself is a noble monument to any man."
Bottineau spent his later years in the western part of Minnesota known as the Red River Valley, an area that drains to the north, though it was linked to the Mississippi through the famous Pembina Ox-cart Trail. That trail also passed through Elk River, adding to its importance as a commercial hub during its early history.
Changing With the Times
Following a pattern that was to repeat itself again and again throughout the region, fur-trading gave way in time to lumbering, which in turn was replaced by agriculture as the base of Elk River's economy. Though it will never become "just another suburb," the city has long since been absorbed in the spreading sphere of the metropolitan Twin Cities area.
Elk River: The Energy City
In recent times Elk River has developed an enviable reputation as a result of its forward-looking use of energy. It became the location of America's first rural nuclear power plant in 1960. That pilot project was discontinued after a few successful years of operation, but during the 1980's the plant was redesigned to generate electricity by burning garbage and refuse. Elk River was designated as Minnesota's Energy City as a result of these groundbreaking initiatives.
